Ricky Holland Vanished

The murder trial for Tim and Lisa Holland from Williamston, Michigan has been set to begin on September 11, 2006 in Lansing, Michigan. The case will be tried in front of Ingham County Circuit Judge Paula Manderfield. At this point Judge Manderfield has indicated that the Holland’s will be tried together and will have separate juries. A quote from Judge Manderfield:

“At this point, we’re looking at separate juries, one trial,” Ingham County Circuit Judge Paula Manderfield said at Tuesday’s hearing, noting she still might reconsider.

Also at issue is whether there will be a change of venue. Both sides agree that it will difficult for the Holland’s to receive a fair trial in Ingham County evidenced by public disdain for the couple because of the evidence released by the media during their pretrial hearing. At this point Judge Manderfield is committed to conducting the trial in Ingham County. She said she would not consider a change of venue until the beginning of jury selection. The judge went on to say the only thing that prospective jurors need to prove is that they have not formed opinions about the case.

Prosecutors have dropped charges of obstruction of justice and filing a false police report. In the case of the obstruction of justice charges, the Prosecutor Ferency said those charges are under investigation and other people may be charged for that crime in the future.

I am wondering if the other people being considered for charges are the one’s that Tim’s mother referred to during the jailhouse recording of their conversation. At one point Arcie, Tim’s mother is heard saying to Tim: “I hope everyone involved gets punished for what they did”. Hopefully those under consideration for charges also will be the people who did nothing to stop the abuse when they saw it happening.

Prosecutors have listed 70 to 80 potential witnesses. However, Prosecutor Ferency indicated that only about two dozen will be called from that list to actually testify.

Well, it appears that justice is swift in Michigan as to conducting trials.

I am thinking of the trial of John Couey in Florida. He is accused of the murder of 9-year-old Jessica Lunsford. He was arrested in 2005, I believe in February and his trial is not set to begin until July 2006.

My hat is off to the state of Michigan for not dragging this out over a year to get to court. Hopefully the trial will run smoothly and the guilty party or parties will be punished to the fullest extent of the law, then Ricky will have some sort of justice.

• Source

The Special Committee on Child Protection Hearing will be aired live on the web tomorrow, Thursday, May 18th at 9 a.m. Michigan time live from the House Office Building in Lansing, MI.

You will need to install RealPlayer to view this important legislative meeting that has been set up to address Ricky Holland’s case. There is a link at the site that will take you to the Real Player site for download of the free program if you do not have it.

I don’t know if this committe meeing is open to the public or not.

Committee Child Protection

Clerk Phone Number

517-373-2013

Location

326 House Office Building, Lansing, MI

Date Thursday, 5/18/2006

Time 9:00 AM

Agenda PRESENTATION DEPARTMENT OF HUMAN SERVICES

Ms. Marianne Udow, Director, Child Protection Network in the State of Michigan

Chair Representative David Law

http://house.michigan.gov/htv.asp