By CHRISTINA HALL
FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER
The defense attorney for Michael George — who is accused in the 1990 slaying of his wife in their comic book store — is asking a Macomb County judge for an evidentiary hearing to determine if the prosecution’s key witness gave an interview to a Clinton Township detective after the murder, as reported in a book authored by a former Free Press reporter.
George, 50, is accused of killing his wife, Barbara, in the comic book store they owned in Clinton Township. Michael Renaud, prosecutors said, is the single witness who places George at the store at the time of the murder.
If Renaudgave an interview to police as told in the book “Dead But Not Forgotten” by former Free Press reporter Amber Hunt, “the absence of notes or a report [by police] is of major significance,” according to one of three motions filed Monday by George’s defense attorney, Carl Marlinga, in Macomb County Circuit Court.
“…Failure to preserve such information would be a denial of due process which cannot be cured,” he wrote.
And if the 10 to15 minute interview with a detective that Renaud related in the book did not take place, “it would be strong evidence that Michael Renaud suffers from false memories or is capable of making up stories without any basis in fact,” Marlinga wrote.
He wants a hearing to receive testimony from Hunt as well as present and past township police detectives “in the event that Mr. Renaud’s testimony calls into question the veracity or accuracy of such persons.”
Hunt, who left the Free Press to accept a Knight-Wallace journalism fellowship at the University of Michigan, said Tuesday that Renaud’s “memory was that that’s what happened. And that’s what I reported.”
She said she researched the book for months, did countless interviews and went through “hundreds, if not more than 1,000 pages of evidence.” She said the prosecution and defense filed a lot of motions in the case and “I can’t be surprised that they caught something that caught their attention.”
The defense motion cites a passage from Hunt’s book that states Renaud told her that a detective called him, and that he was asked to go to the police department for an in-person interview. Renaud said in the passage that he took his child with him and spoke for 10 to 15 minutes with a detective who “asked questions, jotted down Renaud’s answers and sent him on his way.”
If the police interview occurred and notes were taken as Hunt reported, the motion states, the report of the interview and notes “are discoverable and should have been produced.”
The motion states that the false memory explanation needs to be explored because the defense has learned since the first trial that Renaud has a history of abusing alcohol and using mind-altering drugs, including marijuana, LSD, and hallucinogenic mushrooms. Renaud admitted to police that he used alcohol and marijuana on weekends in 1990, and he admitted to a defense witness that he has a hard time remembering things from four or five years ago, according to the motion.
A second defense motion requests that the court issue an order prohibiting counsel from eliciting from Renaud information about when a co-worker punched into work July 13, 1990 — the night Barbara George was shot to death — unless it can be established that Renaud remembers seeing the co-worker arriving at work at a given time that day.
Renaud stated he called the comic book store on the date of the murder, and the timing of the call is related to when his co-worker showed up for work.
It appears from wording on a July 17, 1990 police report that Renaud knew about the time the co-worker punched in as a result of the co-worker telling him, not from Renaud seeing the co-worker punch in or that he took note of when the co-worker began work that day, according to the motion.
The third motion requests that the court exclude evidence and testimony from the first trial regarding George’s demeanor at the funeral home after his wife’s death and a witness from Resurrection Cemetery who testified that he did not recall George stopping at the office to ask directions to his wife’s gravesite.Assistant Prosecutor Bill Cataldo said Tuesday he had not yet read the motions, but said the issue Marlinga is raising is “an issue of credibility, not admissibility.” He added that “taking a motion from a book is highly unusual.”
Circuit Judge James Biernat is to consider arguments on the motions Nov. 29, Marlinga said.
Biernat threw out a jury’s first-degree murder conviction of George in 2008 due to evidence discovered after trial, a decision that was upheld last month by the Michigan Supreme Court. A second murder trial for George is set for Feb. 8. He is free on bond.
It is not known what judge will be assigned to the second trial since Biernat is retiring at the end of the year.
With Circuit Court being short one judge starting next year, Marlinga said it is probable that Biernat will be brought back as a visiting judge and assigned to the George case.
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