By Emanuella Grinberg Court TV
Acquitted murder defendant Robert Durst filed a motion asking that a different judge hear his trial for bail-jumping and evidence-tampering charges. According to online records, in a motion filed Monday in Galveston County District Court, Durst's attorneys, backed by five jurors from his original murder trial, accused 212th District Judge Susan Criss of being biased against Durst. They said she would not be impartial in the proceedings. Criss could not be immediately reached for comment, but Local 2 NBC news in Houston reported that Criss has declined to recuse herself. The charges stem from the millionaire real estate heir's previous trial for the murder of his neighbor, Morris Black, whom he admitted to killing in self-defense before dismembering his remains and tossing them into the Galveston Bay in September 2001.
Durst was hit with the bail-jumping charge for going on the lam after posting bond on the murder charges. Police caught up with him in October 2001 in Pennsylvania. He has been in custody ever since. Criss heard that case, and since has been outspoken in public about her disappointment with the not-guilty verdict rendered by the jury in November 2003. After Durst's indictment on the new charges was announced in February 2004, Criss set his bail at $3 billion, or $1 million for each charge, the highest bond set in Texas history. An appeals court tossed the bond amounts, lowering them to $150,000 in June. Criss also refused to accept a plea agreement on the remaining charges struck by both the prosecution and defense in mid-September. "Her statements, her actions, as they have been directed towards Bob Durst, indicate a person who has a bias and who is unfit to continue to hear the cases that are in front of her," Chip Lewis, Durst's attorney, told Local 2 News. |