Lost exhibits a stumbling block for Tisdale defense

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Defense attorney Bruce Harvey

DAWSONVILLE, Ga. – After a 12-hour day in Dawson County Superior Court Thursday, the Nydia Tisdale trial came to a shocking and unexpected end when defense attorney Bruce Harvey reported that a stack of exhibits he planned to present were missing from the courtroom.

Senior Superior Court Judge Martha Christian was ready to call the jury back into the courtroom following a late-evening 30-minute break when Harvey approached the bench to inform her that a stack of exhibits he left on the court reporter’s desk were missing.

“Can you say with absolute certainty you left those exhibits with the court reporter on the court reporter’s desk?” she asked. Harvey said he could say that. Christian then directed him and Assistant District Attorney Conley Greer to call their clients and ask if one of them had inadvertently walked away with the exhibits.

Judge Martha Christian

She then called the jury back and dismissed them for the evening shortly after 9 p.m. with instructions to plan on continuing the case next week.

Tisdale was charged with one count of felony obstruction of an officer and two misdemeanor counts of obstruction and criminal trespass at a Republican political rally at Burt’s Pumpkin Farm in August 2014.

It was not a good day for the defense. Earlier in the day, the judge quashed a subpoena for Governor Nathan Deal, calling it “unreasonable and obtrusive.” When the state rested its case, Harvey moved for a directed verdict and that was denied.

 

 

Fetch Your News is a hyper local news outlet that covers Dawson, Lumpkin, White, Fannin, Gilmer, Pickens, Union, Towns and Murray counties as well as Cherokee County in N.C. If you would like to follow up-to-date local events in any of those counties, please visit us at FetchYourNews.com

 

 

 

2 Comments

  1. Beth Pollak December 1, 2017 at 10:10 am

    How can you reasonably say it was not a good day for the defense? I was there and the extremely credible witnesses were very compelling in favor of the defendant. There was very little doubt in my mind that a travesty had been committed. The denial of Nathan Deal was clearly a result of the judge, jury and executioner mentality that exists within our court systems and the good ol’ boy network protecting their own. Are you blaming the defense for the missing documents? That seems more irresponsible on the part of the prosecutor and reeks of a diversionary tactic.

    • Bill Johnson December 2, 2017 at 11:18 am

      Thanks for reading Fetch Your News Beth. I appreciate your comments even though we disagree. I do blame the defense for the missing documents. They were his documents and it was his responsibility to protect them. He even said as much Friday. He said he considered asking for a mistrial but then realized he was “probably to blame” for their being missing. The defense also admitted the subpoena for Gov. Deal was served on someone who was not authorized to receive it on behalf of the governor.

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