Medical Examiner's Visit to Law School Class Sparks New Defense Claims in Local Manslaughter Case
It’s not clear exactly what lesson a Florida state attorney expected law students to learn when he invited a medical examiner to speak at a class he oversees as an adjunct professor.
However, the session apparently was a learning experience for those at the front of the classroom as well as those who haven’t yet earned their juris doctor degrees, according to the Tampa Bay Times.
After class, one of the students who had attended the session at Stetson University College of Law in Gulfport contacted defense counsel in a local child manslaughter case. The visiting speaker, Pinellas-Pasco Medical Examiner Jon Thogmartin, had suggested during his talk to the class that another small child, rather than an adult, could have caused the injuries that killed the 1-year-old victim in that manslaughter case, the student told defense counsel.
That resulted in a sentencing delay Friday for the defendant, Stephanie Spurgeon of Palm Harbor, who has been convicted of manslaughter in the child’s death. Her lawyers, Ron Kurpiers and Bjorn Brunvand, are now seeking a new trial based on what they say is new evidence in the case provided via the ME’s classroom comments. Pinellas-Pasco Circuit Judge Cynthia Newton has scheduled a June 25 hearing on that issue, the Times recounts.
Thogmartin says his comments to the class were taken out of context and misrepresented to the defense lawyers.
Meanwhile, the newspaper has raised another issue: If the information from Thogmartin is relevant to Spurgeon’s defense, shouldn’t the adjunct, Pinellas-Pasco State Attorney Bernie McCabe, and a senior prosecutor assisting him have brought it to the court’s attention themselves?
Both prosecutors say they didn’t hear Thogmartin discuss any new evidence and, if they had, they would have brought it to the court’s attention.
