Ruttenberg and co-council Tom Carberry, after all, were the ones who asked for the dismissal back in March. That's because the Court of Appeals had ruled that Molly's appeal to their court would have to be considered in its entirety before her lawyers could try a different tact - requesting a whole new trial in district court.
After that decision, filing to dismiss the appeal made sense, says Ruttenberg, because as she puts it, "There was nothing to appeal." That's because Molly's original criminal attorney, hotshot defense lawyer Craig Truman, hardly objected during her trial at all, meaning there were few issues preserved from the trial they could use in the appeal. There's also the matter that the appeal was largely based on whether or not Paul McCormick, Alex's lawyer, had unfairly meddled in Molly's case -- and Molly's lawyers say there was a lot more wrong with Molly's trial than just that.
Hence Molly and her lawyer's decision to do away with the appeal altogether and focus on arguing in Boulder County district court that Molly deserves a new trial because, for many reasons, she didn't receive fair representation the first time around. Next month, the Boulder district judge on the case will hold a status conference on the matter to decide when to schedule lengthy evidentiary hearings on the matter, says Ruttenberg. That's also when the Boulder District Attorney's office will disclose whether it will withdraw from the case and ask for a special prosecutor -- something Ruttenberg says she's sure it will, because "they are too intimately involved in the case as witnesses."
At the end of the evidentiary hearings, the court will decide whether or not Molly deserves another day in court -- something that the losing party in the matter is likely to take to the Colorado Court of Appeals. All in all, Ruttenberg says it will likely be another two years until Molly actually gets a new trial, if she scores one at all. By that point, she will likely already be eligible for Community Corrections.
To Molly, that doesn't matter, says Ruttenberg: "She is going to fight this."
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