Man accused of jury threat, biting court officer in 2010 gets mistrial after lawyer punch
A man charged with disrupting his initial Massachusetts murder trial by threatening the jury and a witness and biting a Worcester Superior Court officer, will not have to proceed with a retrial.
The 35-year-old defendant, Janleer Povez, reportedly punched his own defense lawyer in the mouth in court Monday. Although the jury was not present at the time, the judge declared a mistrial in the second-degree murder case, MassLive.com recounts.
The lawyer, Elliot Levine, had a visibly swollen lip, but otherwise appeared OK, according to the Worcester Telegram & Gazette. It was Levine who moved for a mistrial, saying that he could no longer effectively represent Povez. The defendant had sought the lawyer’s removal in a motion that was pending at the time of the Monday incident. The newspaper says the attorney was punched almost immediately after a handcuffed Povez arrived in court.
The state, which had rested its case, objected to the mistrial. District Attorney Joseph Early Jr. said the case could have proceeded with Povez either in full restraints or absent from the courtroom.
“It was just another attempt for him to manipulate what was going on in the courtroom,” said Early, who hasn’t decided whether to file new assault charges against Povez. “He didn’t want the trial to reach the end point.”
Povez was arraigned last year on 29 additional counts over his alleged conduct during the original 2010 trial, as an earlier MassLive.com article details. The 2010 trial proceeded to verdict, and the jury convicted Povez. However, an appeals court later reversed, finding that a Hispanic man may have been improperly excluded from the jury.
