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Defense calls Sherman manslaughter dismissal ‘appropriate’

Thomas Jadlowski

The attorney representing a Sherman man who had manslaughter charges in a hunting incident in November dismissed earlier this week has issued a statement this morning regarding the ruling.

In his ruling, Chautauqua County Court Judge David Foley said the District Attorney’s office erred when it presented its case in front of a grand jury against Thomas Jadlowski. Specifically, Foley said District Attorney Patrick Swanson failed to answer a question of a grand juror regarding a lesser charge in the shooting death of 43-year-old Rosemary Billquist.

Attorney Michael Cerrie, who is representing Jadlowski, said it was an “appropriate decision” and we disagreed with Swanson’s assertion that the ruling was “some sort of a hyper-technicality.”

Here is Cerrie’s complete statement:

“As you know, a Chautauqua County Grand Jury indicted my client, Thomas Jadlowski, for manslaughter in the second degree, a class C felony. In response to written motions filed by the defense, County Judge David Foley was required to conduct a review of the transcript of the Grand Jury proceedings. That review has now resulted in the issuance of a decision and order dismissing that indictment, but affording the District Attorney a period of 30 days to resubmit the case to another Grand Jury.

“Although the court and district attorney are privy to the Grand Jury transcript, that information has not been released to the defense at this point. Based on the information we have, the grand jury was interested in knowing if there was a lesser charge, other than manslaughter in the second degree, that they could consider. The district attorney told the Grand Jury that the next step down is criminally negligent homicide, which is a class E felony, but never instructed the grand jury on the legal elements of that lesser charge.

“Judge Foley determined that the District Attorney had an obligation to answer the Grand Jury’s question accurately and to comply with the Grand Jury’s request, by instructing them on Criminally Negligent Homicide.

“The Grand Jury plays a pivotal role in our criminal justice system and, as Judge Foley has indicated, has authority that is independent of the prosecution. The District Attorney is the legal adviser to the Grand Jury but it is the Grand Jury, and not the prosecutor, that has the legal obligation to decide whether and for which crimes a person shall be ultimately tried. It is important to remember that the defense attorney plays no role in the grand jury process. The District Attorney decides which witnesses to call, and what evidence to present, and there is no opportunity for the defense to cross-examine the prosecution’s witnesses.

The Grand Jury asked a very important question, but the District Attorney did not answer the question with the details that were required. That effectively undermined the role of the Grand Jury, resulting in the Decision and Order that Judge Foley was compelled to issue. We certainly agree that this is the appropriate decision, and we disagree with the District Attorney’s assertion that the Judge’s decision was some sort of a hyper-technicality.

Judge Foley’s four-page Decision and Order shows that a thorough and careful analysis of the facts, and the applicable statutes and case law, required this determination. As stated above, the District Attorney still has the opportunity to resubmit the case to another Grand Jury.”

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