Missoula County attorney denies accusations of misconduct in homicide trial - The Missoulian

Missoula County Attorney Fred Van Valkenburg blasted back Tuesday at defense attorneys who allege a Missoula police officer lied while testifying during a homicide trial.

That accusation is based on "false premises, misleading innuendo and information taken out of context," Van Valkenburg wrote in his response filed Tuesday in Missoula County District Court.

The dueling documents are part of the legal maneuvering preceding the trial - scheduled for Monday - of Eugene "Joey" Gonzalez in the 2010 death of Johnny Belmarez, a 46-year-old transient, in a downtown Missoula alley.

Both Gonzalez, 48, and his co-defendant, Raymond Big Beaver, originally were charged with deliberate homicide in the case. But in August, a Missoula County District Court jury found Big Beaver, 41, guilty of misdemeanor assault. Van Valkenburg recently amended Gonzalez's charge to accountability for deliberate homicide.

Among the witnesses who testified against Big Beaver was Missoula Police Detective Mark Blood.

Last week, public defenders Wade Zolynski and Deidre Caughlan filed a motion seeking to have the case against Gonzalez thrown out, saying Blood lied on the stand about a potential witness to the alleyway scuffle that preceded the discovery of Belmarez, who wasn't breathing, behind the former La Parilla restaurant.

That possible witness, referenced by several people who testified at Big Beaver's trial, was a woman in a wheelchair. She was never identified by her full name at the trial and, according to a transcript cited in the defense motion, Blood testified he didn't know her name.

Van Valkenburg's response to the defense motion took exception with its contention that Blood knew the woman as Elise Kellogg within two days of Belmarez's death.

"Amazingly, and especially in light of the defendant's professed concerns about due process and compliance with discovery obligations, the defendant did not provide the court with a transcript of any statement taken from Elise Kellogg, nor has he provided the state with a copy of any such statement," Van Valkenburg wrote.

Blood spoke with a woman he knew only as "Lici" who told him she knew wasn't present during the incident and knew nothing about it, according to the state's response.

"After talking to 'Lici,' as far as Detective Blood was concerned, the tip that caused him to inquire whether 'Lici' was the woman in the wheelchair who had actually witnessed the assault on Johnny Belmarez was a false lead and, as such, there was no reason for Detective Blood to include anything in his report about his contact with her," the response said.

The defense motion also accused Van Valkenburg of prosecutorial misconduct, saying he had not supplied information as required about Elise Kellogg and another witness, Joseph Macomber. Van Valkenburg's response contested that allegation as well as a similar one regarding another witness, James Strebig.

The prosecution provided the defense with a copy of a 47-minute DVD that demonstrates Van Valkenburg told Strebig the state would have to provide a copy of his statement to defense attorneys, he wrote.

"If the state were trying to deliberately suppress this information, why would it then give the DVD in its entirety to the defendant?" Van Valkenburg wrote. "The defendant's claims of prosecutorial misconduct are nonsensical and ridiculous in the total context of what really happened with regard to Mr. Strebig."

Both sides requested an evidentiary hearing on the defense motion.

The amended information filed against Gonzalez includes alternatives for negligent homicide by accountability or criminal endangerment by accountability. He pleaded not guilty to all versions of the charge.

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