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Dunn still awaiting freedom

5/20/2016

By Tom Marshall
Senior Advocate writer

Michael Dunn remains in legal limbo awaiting his freedom.
In March, the Kentucky Supreme Court ruled that Dunn, 46, of Jeffersonville, could not stand trial on five counts of sodomy of which he had previously been convicted.

At a status hearing in the case Tuesday, Montgomery County Circuit Judge Beth Maze she can’t release Dunn because she does not have legal jurisdiction over his case.

Maze told Dunn that the Supreme Court’s ruling sends the case back to the Court of Appeals, which must then remand it back to circuit court.
Dunn asked that he instead be released on bond in the meantime since he can’t be retried on the charges. Maze told him she can’t because of the jurisdictional issue.

Dunn is currently being held at the Montgomery County Regional Jail on a $100,000 bond.

Assistant Commonwealth Attorney Autumn Dmytrewycz advised Dunn that he could have his lawyer bring up the issue with the Appeals Court in the interim.

He was then returned to the jail with another status hearing scheduled for June 10.

Dunn was convicted in 2010 of five counts of first-degree sodomy involving a 14-year-old boy and sentenced to 50 years in prison. He was acquitted of two charges.

However, during the trial the jury instructions on all seven counts contained identical language.

Dunn made issue of this during subsequent appeals.

Maze ordered a retrial on all seven counts, even the two of which Dunn had been acquitted by the jury. Dunn then pursued the case to the Court of Appeals, which ruled that he could not be retried on the two counts of which he had not been convicted.

Dunn then appealed to the Supreme Court.

Dunn claimed that because he was acquitted on two of the seven identically worded counts, he may not be retried on the five that remain because you cannot distinguish between them.

In an opinion published March 17, the court ruled that to try Dunn again on the sodomy charges would violate his double-jeopardy right against successive prosecution.

A criminal defendant cannot be tried twice for the same alleged crime.