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Judge orders mistrial in Vermeersch case; prosecutors will retry case

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Dean Vermeersch, whom prosecutors allege conducted a marijuana-growing operation that led to a fire in November 2012 at his former Port Carbon residence, will go on trial again in April, as a Schuylkill County judge declared a mistrial Monday in his case.

President Judge William E. Baldwin ruled that an unintentional failure to provide Vermeersch with receipts seized from his car necessitated the mistrial.

"Those receipts are mandatory discovery," Baldwin ruled after a two-hour hearing. He also decided that, due to other evidentiary problems in the case, he could not assume prosecutors had followed normal procedures and provided the receipts to Joseph D. Caraciolo, Harrisburg, Vermeersch's lawyer, who said he had never seen them before Feb. 11, the second day of the trial.

Baldwin had continued the trial, which had been scheduled to resume at 9 a.m. Wednesday, in order for prosecutors and Caraciolo to work out discovery problems.

However, Baldwin ruled the receipts would have changed how Caraciolo would have handled the case, including his opening statement and cross-examination of witnesses.

Baldwin did not end the prosecution of Vermeersch.

"The commonwealth may list the case next term," he said.

District Attorney Christine A. Holman said she will do just that. The second trial, which will be before a different jury than the first, will occur during the April criminal court term, which will occur April 7-15, and is expected to last three days.

"We will strive to make the victims in this case whole," she said. "Now that we have a 100 percent handle on this case, we are confident that we will successfully prosecute Dean Vermeersch."

The receipts involved items purportedly bought by Vermeersch from Lowes, Home Depot and Wal-Mart. The receipts were for purchases that prosecutors allege were items Vermeersch used in the marijuana-growing operation.

Holman, who took office at the end of 2013, blamed her predecessor, Karen Byrnes-Noon, under whose administration the prosecution began, for the problem.

"The reason we'll be retrying the case is that I certainly wouldn't want to see a miscarriage of justice because of the ... apathy and nonchalance of the prior administration in ensuring that all discovery requests had been ... provided," Holman said.

Holman also said she and her staff members had seen other such problems in files and that a stringent discovery policy has been instituted to ensure no such situations arise in the future.

Under Pennsylvania law, prosecutors are required to turn over copies of their evidence to the defense; in limited situations, defendants are required to turn over copies of their evidence to prosecutors, primarily in cases involving alibi or insanity defenses. The process of requesting and turning over such evidence is called discovery.

On the other side, Caraciolo was equally confident in a favorable result in the new trial.

"We are a bit disappointed in a mistrial," said Caraciolo, who agreed any failure to turn over evidence was inadvertent. "We were hoping the entire matter would have been resolved with an acquittal 2 1/2 weeks ago."

Schuylkill County detectives have charged Vermeersch with three counts of recklessly endangering another person and one each of causing a catastrophe, manufacture of a controlled substance, possession with intent to deliver a controlled substance, possession of a controlled substance and possession of drug paraphernalia.

They allege Vermeersch was conducting the marijuana-growing operation at 233 N. Coal St. when the fire started there about 6:30 a.m. Nov. 28, 2012. Prosecutors allege Vermeersch is responsible for the blaze, which destroyed his residence and the other half of the double house, 231 N. Coal St., which was the home of Lamar and Katrina Staller and their daughter, Rebecca Staller.

During Monday's hearing, First Assistant District Attorney Maria T. Casey attempted to prove the receipts were part of the thick binder of evidence that had been turned over to Caraciolo.

"It's my belief that everything in that binder was turned over to defense counsel," testified Douglas J. Taglieri, the former assistant district attorney who had handled the Vermeersch case until resigning his position shortly before Holman took office. "There's no point in not turning over discovery (materials)."

Jaymie Line, the criminal information processor in the district attorney's office, also testified she had copied all materials in the bind and sent everything to Caraciolo.

Former county detective Gregory S. Meisner testified he had reviewed the receipts and put them in the binder.

However, when cross-examined by Caraciolo, neither Line nor Taglieri could specifically remember the receipts being part of the binder.

William C. Reiley, a former first assistant district attorney, said he was not aware of any ongoing problems with discovery in the Vermeersch case, but that each prosecutor was responsible for his or her own files.

Caraciolo called only one witness, Assistant District Attorney Keith D. Hoppes, who is prosecuting the case along with Assistant District Attorney Robert I. Lipkin. Hoppes testified he had provided the receipts to Caraciolo on Feb. 11.

"I wasn't sure what he had and what he didn't have," Hoppes said.


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