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Although motions made Thursday for his trial to be continued and for a change of venue were denied, Charles W. Adams of Angola was afforded more time to prepare when a mistrial was declared Monday afternoon.
Adams, 32, was on trial in Kosciusko Superior Court I for charges of battery with a deadly weapon, a Class C felony; criminal deviate conduct, a Class B felony; and criminal confinement, a Class D felony, for allegedly beating, raping and sodomizing his wife on June 3, 1998, in Warsaw, while preventing her from leaving their East Clark Street home.
Judge Duane Huffer declared the mistrial after information regarding Adams' criminal history was noted in a document being reviewed by jurors. That information was to be suppressed, according to a pretrial motion granted by Huffer.
Chief Deputy Prosecutor Byron Tinkey said both he and defense attorney Vern Landis previously reviewed the medical history report submitted by Kosciusko Community Hospital personnel after Angela Frye Adams was examined there. Tinkey said neither of them recalled the "offending language," but Huffer noticed it as he scanned through the material at the same time jurors were reading the report. Huffer immediately instructed jurors to hand the documents forward and recessed the trial for the day.
Once the jurors were out of the courtroom, Huffer brought the information to the attention of the attorneys and asked: "What do you propose to do about this, gentlemen?"
Tinkey suggested the statements in question be "blacked out" of the document or that jurors be instructed to disregard that information.
However, Landis said, "If the jury has seen this, I would have to ask for a mistrial at this point."
After a meeting with the attorneys in the judge's chambers, it was decided that a mistrial would be declared.
Landis on Thursday had asked the court to continue this trial because of pretrial publicity associated with a civil rights lawsuit Adams has filed against local police. That lawsuit was filed April 13 in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Indiana at Fort Wayne, and an article about the matter appeared in the Times-Union on April 14.
Adams claims he was wrongfully imprisoned after a warrantless arrest and search of his property and that he was held in the Kosciusko County Jail longer than is allowed by law without being arraigned.
Adams' criminal trial is reset for Sept. 20-22 in Kosciusko Superior Court I.
