The Aaron Hernandez murder case was in court on Wednesday in Fall River for a pretrial hearing that included a number of rulings and motions, including one by the prosecution asking the judge in the case to recuse herself, as the lawyers claimed that Bristol County Superior Court Judge E. Susan Garsh and the lead lawyer for the state have had issues with each other.
According to the Associated Press, lawyers in the case filed a motion at the hearing asking the judge to remove herself from the case, as she and the lead lawyer for the state in Bristol County Assistant District Attorney William McCauley have previously had antagonism towards each other. While McCauley did not go into specifics, reports have said that the judge has previously shown bias and also that there is past "antagonism" between the two that previously happened in a different murder case from a couple years ago.
The report from the Associated Press says that while McCauley won the case that he argued in front of the judge, that there were issues between the two that are publically known and due to that, it could infringe on either of the two doing their jobs fully and correctly. The defense stated that they do not agree with the move and will argue against it and McCauley added that the media could "sensationalize" their past in regards to this case, as it involves a high profile client.
According to an article in the Herald News, the judge has been called fair in her career by other lawyers and the report adds that she is also considered a very "astute and fair" judge when it comes to cases. The report details a bit about what McCauley and Garsh went through during their previous murder trial and McCauley said in the article that he was "surprised" when she was assigned the case.
During the previous case involving McCauley, the judge heard arguments for a murder and during that trial, McCauley stated that he felt the judge was "antagonistic" towards the prosecution and that she also offered "unfair rulings" on evidence in the case. Clearly this is part of the reason why McCauley asked for the recusal in court and now things will pick up again in the case later in October for a date scheduled on October 21 for the motion.
