A judge has ordered a new trial for John Katzeek, a
big-game guide convicted by a local jury Aug. 11 of illegally killing a female brown bear
that had three cubs.
A scheduling hearing for the second trial is set for Nov. 26.
District court Judge Keith Levy ruled Nov. 8 that the
prosecution’s failure to provide Katzeek’s attorney with field notes and a
drawing by state trooper Todd Machacek, who investigated the bear kill, was unfair to
Katzeek’s defense.
District attorney Schmidt told Levy that he didn’t possess or
control Machacek’s field notes and drawing. He told the court that the original
drawing was redundant because Katzeek’s attorney was able to cross-examine
Machacek using a diagram based on Machacek’s drawing.
Katzeek reported the shooting Sept. 23, 2006 in the Klehini River
drainage. Katzeek said he and client Randall Schrader were stalking the animal, until they
saw it had three cubs, when they retreated and the sow came at them. At issue was whether
Katzeek and Schrader had to shoot the bear in self-defense.
At the trial, Schmidt had used a diagram based on Machacek’s
drawing of the shooting scene, one that showed the bear walking in an arc toward the
hunters. In appealing for a retrial, Katzeek argued that the bear came at him and Randall
directly, and that Machacek’s original drawing bolstered his case.
Judge Levy wrote: "(Katzeek) claimed the bear had a fish in its
mouth and traveled in a straight line toward him and his client. He asserted that the bear
dropped the fish and then charged directly at them, posing an immediate threat to their
lives. In contrast, Trooper Machacek testified that the bear traveled at a leisurely pace
in an arc, giving the defendant plenty of time and distance to get away from the bear
without having to shoot it. He based this on his interviews with Katzeek and his
observations at the scene of the shooting."
Questions from the jury – including a request to travel to the
shooting scene – confirmed that the credibility of Katzeek and Machacek and their
descriptions of the bear’s approach were critical to their decision, Levy wrote.
"Trooper Machacek’s handwritten diagram, which the state did not produce until
after the trial, differs substantively from (the diagram used during the trial)…
Because the credibility of Machacek and Katzeek was a central issue in the case,
Machacek’s diagram could have substantially influenced the jury’s
decision…," Levy wrote.
Levy, who presided over the trial, rebutted four other claims cited by
Katzeek co-counsel Fred Triem for seeking the new trial.
"Nothing in the record indicates (the prosecution’s failure
to provide Machacek’s drawing) "was anything more than an inadvertent
oversight," Judge Levy wrote.
