A special prosecutor in the case against the former Texas County Sheriff and his chief deputy argues the case is being played out in the media and in the public arena.
James Sigman and his former chief deputy Jennifer Tomaszewski both appeared before a judge in Houston, Mo., Tuesday– with their attorney Jason Coatney.
Officers with the Missouri Highway Patrol arrested Sheriff James Sigman and his chief deputy, Lieutenant Jennifer Tomaszewski in July.
The state’s special prosecutor Don Trotter is asking for essentially a gag order on the defense, asking that Sigman’s and Tomaszewski’s attorney Jason Coatney to stop talking about the case publicly and stop trying the case “out in the open.”
Coatney, though, says he has a right to defend his client. He says state investigators are just mad at the defense’s discovery. That discovery includes a surveillance video tape of Missouri Highway Patrol investigators, and others, going through a medical file that pertains in part to some of the felony charges filed against the sheriff and deputy.
The defense says he thinks it could establish perjury by investigators.
However, the state disagrees. And at this point, there is no authoritative ruling that investigators did act criminally.
The judge will make a decision on the gag order at a hearing in October.