WAYNE CO.—Folks are beginning to wonder if convicted child molester Haven Kirkpatrick has a hidden reserve of money and attorneys somewhere.
The reason for this wondering is that it’s the eve of her sentencing (the third such attempt; the first two have been delayed) and it looks like there may just be yet ANOTHER delay.
According to court information, Kirkpatrick, 31, now of Carmi, who was convicted in mid-October 2011 of eight counts of Aggravated Criminal Sexual Abuse of a 17-year-old student of hers at Fairfield Community High School, has filed a motion for substitution of counsel. She wants her attorney, beleaguered Benton-area barrister Bryan Drew, off the case, and instead is seeking to replace him with Flora attorney Gary Milone. While Milone isn’t any great shakes in the courtroom, he’s at least not Bryan Drew….who’s dragging his recent losses in many area courts (Roger Hutchison, James Gaddis, Todd Fort) around like a ball and chain attached to his ankle. Kind of like his most recent wife, Christen Cr—er, Drew. Which is another story altogether.
HavenK & friend (Haven on the right)
Now, why Kirkpatrick wishes to have her formerly-viewed-as-awesome attorney off her case is the great mystery here. But we think we have a possible explanation, as well as a possible reason for merely the change in attorneys.
Of course, bringing in ANY attorney at this time may possibly delay the sentencing. If Milone were actually able to put in an appearance tomorrow as Kirkpatrick’s counsel, the first thing he could ask for is is a motion for the court to set aside the verdict rendered back in October. There are various reasons why he could ask such a thing, but if he were able to get Frankland to do it, there would be a whole new trial….which would keep Haven from going to Dwight where she would be amongst her kind (and which really is a somewhat slim possibility anyway, as she is a first-time offender and we’ve seen worse sex offenders get a slap on the wrist and four years probation. Not with Frankland, but hey….it has happened.)
The likelihood of Frankland setting aside his own decision of guilty, however, is even slimmer (it was a bench trial. It’s not like the judge would be overturning a jury’s verdict…it would be HIS OWN, and that just doesn’t happen).
So here’s the rest of it.
Bryan Drew and the distraction that's probably caused him to lose all his high-profile cases in 2011
If Milone comes on, he asks for the verdict to be set aside, it is not, they proceed on to sentencing, HavenK goes to prison, now here’s the kicker: Bringing Milone on the scene, argues HavenK, was necessary because Drew provided ineffective counsel. (Which, I’d like to point out at this juncture, Drew was providing all along, especially because it appears his defense was to claim that the 17-year-old wasn’t a minor, and wasn’t HavenK’s student when the sex acts were taking place. We said that. But duh.) And “ineffective counsel” is a way to get a sentence overturned on appeal….which we believe is right where they’re going. Because the trials are bearing it out: Drew is nothing if not ineffective.
So we’ll see what transpires tomorrow, and in the days beyond. If Milone files for an appeal, regardless of what Kirkpatrick’s sentence is, it’ll be interesting to see if he points out the obvious as a reason for the appeal. In the meantime, what the Kirkpatricks have against this moving forward and getting over with is starting to look like something obsessive. She’s been found guilty, and there’s not a whole lot that’s going to happen, even with an appeal, that’s going to change the fact that the woman had sexual contact with an underage female student. And if there’s a stigma attached to that…well, someone should have thought about that before the sexual conduct went on, and not waste the court’s—and thus the taxpayers’—time, money and effort whining about it and trying to alter the outcome.