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Gag order sought in shooting
Man faces murder charge
By Adam Thompson | adam.thompson@onlineathens.com | Story updated at 11:50 PM on Tuesday, March 18, 2008
WATKINSVILLE - Richard Harold Gear appeared in Oconee County Superior Court on Tuesday for the first time since he shot and killed a motorcyclist outside his home in Bogart.
Gear's attorney, Edward Tolley, asked Judge Lawton Stephens to return Gear's car, which authorities seized following the Feb. 25 shooting, and to bar sheriff's officials and prosecutors from talking about the case publicly.
The 46-year-old Oconee County native claims he shot 21-year-old Bryan Joseph "B.J." Mough of Winder in self-defense after Mough followed Gear's daughters home to Bogart from a store in Athens.
Gear, who is held at the Oconee County jail, dressed Tuesday in a dark gray suit and tie but remained shackled at the ankles.
Relatives of Gear and Mough attended the hearing.
Concerned about pretrial publicity in the killing, which generated local and national news coverage, Tolley also made an unusual motion for the judge to ask potential grand jurors whether they can be impartial before prosecutors argue for a murder indictment.
"I think the purpose of all of these motions this morning was to slow down the train," Tolley said. "Slow down the publicity train, slow down the emotion, let the lawyers get to work on the case."
Tolley, in court filings, has accused Oconee County Sheriff Scott Berry of making statements to the media that could prejudice potential jurors, including Berry's comments that evidence doesn't back up Gear's claim of self-defense.
He didn't attack Berry or the media Tuesday, however.
"This is a terrible tragedy for both sides, there's no question about that, but I'm amazed that it's engendered the amount of publicity that it has - I think, with all due respect to my longtime friend, the sheriff, possibly due to his exuberance in talking to the press," Tolley said.
Although Gear's attorney is asking for a gag order, he has not asked for the trial to be moved out of Oconee County.
"Rick Gear ... was born and raised in Oconee County, has a right to be tried here," Tolley said. "Contrary to what lawyers often argue, we don't want to be run out of this county by publicity, and we don't want to be indicted by a grand jury that has a fixed opinion based on something they read in the newspaper."
Stephens heard from both sides on the defense's motions and will rule soon on all three.
Prosecutors on Tuesday opposed Tolley's request for authorities to return Gear's 1993 Nissan Sentra, the car that the Gear sisters were driving when they argued with Mough. At some point, the car and Mough's motorcycle collided.
According to a search warrant affidavit used to seize the car, Chelsea and Samantha Gear told Oconee County investigators that Mough cut them off in Athens, then later rammed their car and followed them home after one of the girls made an obscene gesture at him.
But sheriff's investigators doubted the girls' story and have gone to great lengths to reconstruct what happened on the road to the Gears' home in Bogart.
District Attorney Ken Mauldin said Tuesday that prosecutors would like to have the option of presenting the car in its current condition to jurors during a trial.
"There's all kind of evidence that goes to whether a murder occurred in all these circumstances, and what may well have transpired beforehand certainly is going to be evidence, as to the facts of this particular case," Mauldin said.
Tolley contends that deputies seized the car illegally because they did not leave the Gears a copy of the search warrant affidavit when they took it.
Mauldin did not oppose a gag order, though an attorney representing the Athens Banner-Herald argued that the judge should not keep people from speaking publicly about the case.
Gear is scheduled for a preliminary hearing in Oconee County Magistrate Court on March 27.
Published in the Athens Banner-Herald on 031908
Gag order sought in shooting
Man faces murder charge
By Adam Thompson | adam.thompson@onlineathens.com | Story updated at 11:50 PM on Tuesday, March 18, 2008
WATKINSVILLE - Richard Harold Gear appeared in Oconee County Superior Court on Tuesday for the first time since he shot and killed a motorcyclist outside his home in Bogart.
Gear's attorney, Edward Tolley, asked Judge Lawton Stephens to return Gear's car, which authorities seized following the Feb. 25 shooting, and to bar sheriff's officials and prosecutors from talking about the case publicly.
The 46-year-old Oconee County native claims he shot 21-year-old Bryan Joseph "B.J." Mough of Winder in self-defense after Mough followed Gear's daughters home to Bogart from a store in Athens.
Gear, who is held at the Oconee County jail, dressed Tuesday in a dark gray suit and tie but remained shackled at the ankles.
Relatives of Gear and Mough attended the hearing.
Concerned about pretrial publicity in the killing, which generated local and national news coverage, Tolley also made an unusual motion for the judge to ask potential grand jurors whether they can be impartial before prosecutors argue for a murder indictment.
"I think the purpose of all of these motions this morning was to slow down the train," Tolley said. "Slow down the publicity train, slow down the emotion, let the lawyers get to work on the case."
Tolley, in court filings, has accused Oconee County Sheriff Scott Berry of making statements to the media that could prejudice potential jurors, including Berry's comments that evidence doesn't back up Gear's claim of self-defense.
He didn't attack Berry or the media Tuesday, however.
"This is a terrible tragedy for both sides, there's no question about that, but I'm amazed that it's engendered the amount of publicity that it has - I think, with all due respect to my longtime friend, the sheriff, possibly due to his exuberance in talking to the press," Tolley said.
Although Gear's attorney is asking for a gag order, he has not asked for the trial to be moved out of Oconee County.
"Rick Gear ... was born and raised in Oconee County, has a right to be tried here," Tolley said. "Contrary to what lawyers often argue, we don't want to be run out of this county by publicity, and we don't want to be indicted by a grand jury that has a fixed opinion based on something they read in the newspaper."
Stephens heard from both sides on the defense's motions and will rule soon on all three.
Prosecutors on Tuesday opposed Tolley's request for authorities to return Gear's 1993 Nissan Sentra, the car that the Gear sisters were driving when they argued with Mough. At some point, the car and Mough's motorcycle collided.
According to a search warrant affidavit used to seize the car, Chelsea and Samantha Gear told Oconee County investigators that Mough cut them off in Athens, then later rammed their car and followed them home after one of the girls made an obscene gesture at him.
But sheriff's investigators doubted the girls' story and have gone to great lengths to reconstruct what happened on the road to the Gears' home in Bogart.
District Attorney Ken Mauldin said Tuesday that prosecutors would like to have the option of presenting the car in its current condition to jurors during a trial.
"There's all kind of evidence that goes to whether a murder occurred in all these circumstances, and what may well have transpired beforehand certainly is going to be evidence, as to the facts of this particular case," Mauldin said.
Tolley contends that deputies seized the car illegally because they did not leave the Gears a copy of the search warrant affidavit when they took it.
Mauldin did not oppose a gag order, though an attorney representing the Athens Banner-Herald argued that the judge should not keep people from speaking publicly about the case.
Gear is scheduled for a preliminary hearing in Oconee County Magistrate Court on March 27.
Published in the Athens Banner-Herald on 031908
