Kristin Smart hearing: Judge won’t recuse DA, will review detective’s personnel records
The San Luis Obispo County District Attorney’s Office will not be disqualified from prosecuting the murder case of Cal Poly student Kristin Smart, a judge decided Wednesday, after the defense moved to have the agency taken off the case for wearing purple clothing during a preliminary hearing.
Defense attorney Robert Sanger, whose client, Paul Flores, is charged with killing Smart in 1996, previously argued that the decision by multiple people from the District Attorney’s Office to wear purple items of clothing during the hearing was “absolutely inappropriate.”
Purple was Smart’s favorite color.
On Wednesday morning, San Luis Obispo Superior Court Judge Craig van Rooyen said the District Attorney’s Office would remain on the case unless the facts showed a conflict would impact Flores’ ability to have a fair trial.
But the judge did grant a defense motion for a review of the confidential personnel records of the head detective in the case for any evidence of misconduct or inappropriate communications with witnesses.
That and other defense motions are expected to be taken up in court next week; court is adjourned until Monday.
Proceedings resumed Wednesday morning in San Luis Obispo Superior Court in the preliminary hearing for Paul Flores and his father, Ruben Flores.
Paul Flores, now 44, is the last person known to have seen the 19-year-old freshman alive after walking her back from the party toward the Cal Poly campus residence halls on May 24, 1996.
Smart’s body has never been found but investigators said in court documents that her remains were buried at the Arroyo Grande home of 80-year-old Ruben Flores, and recently moved.
Paul Flores, a San Pedro resident, is charged with one count of murder, while his father is charged with felony accessory after the fact. Both defendants have entered pleas of not guilty.
Wednesday marked the 13th day of proceedings as the evidentiary hearing ends its fourth week. It is expected to last through at least Sept. 3.
More than a dozen people — including Smart’s parents and former friends and classmates of Smart and Paul Flores, as well as current and retired San Luis Obispo County Sheriff’s Office and Cal Poly campus detectives, Flores’ ex-girlfriend and a cadaver dog expert — have testified since the hearing began Aug. 2.
On Monday, testimony revealed that investigators planted an informant in Santa Barbara County Jail in order to seek a confession from Paul Flores.
That confidential informant remained in touch with Paul Flores after their release from custody, and the two went on fishing trips and even traveled to Las Vegas together, a defense attorney said during cross-examination for a retired San Luis Obispo County Sheriff’s Office detective.
At the conclusion of the hearing, van Rooyen will rule whether prosecutors established probable cause — a lesser standard of proof than guilt beyond a reasonable doubt — to proceed the case toward trial.
Here’s what happened in court on Wednesday.
Judge denies defense motion to disqualify DA’s Office from case
The defense motion came after Deputy District Attorney Christopher Peuvrelle and other members of the prosecution team were spotted wearing purple ties and other articles of clothing in Superior Court during a preliminary hearing for Paul and Ruben Flores in what Sanger called a show of support for Smart’s family.
On Wednesday, Sanger said the prosecutor, a District Attorney’s Office investigator and a District Attorney’s Office witness coordinator each have worn purple during proceedings, as has the Sheriff’s Office’s lead detective, Clint Cole.
Sanger said that decision “trivializes what’s going on” and is a “serious problem” for an eventual fair trial.
“You can’t adopt the team colors as a prosecutor when that team is (attempting) to convict Paul Flores,” Sanger argued.
Sanger also alleged that District Attorney Dan Dow and Assistant District Attorney Eric Dobroth have been popping in and out of the hearing, and that “the entire DA’s Office from the top down … has been involved in this process.”
Peuvrelle noted that Cole, who had been wearing a purple tie, previously testified that he chose to wear a purple tie during the hearing after learning from a Facebook group that purple was Smart’s favorite color.
That decision was not made after speaking with Smart’s family, Peuvrelle argued.
The prosecution team has not worn purple apparel since the motion to recuse was filed.
A deputy from the California Attorney General’s Office, which would have had to take the case if the motion was granted, also argued that it was the defense’s burden to show how the conduct specifically biases proceedings against Paul and Ruben Flores.
“We’re not even in front of a jury,” deputy attorney general Seth McCutcheon said Wednesday.
In his ruling, van Rooyen said the court couldn’t grant the motion unless the facts showed a conflict so grave that it was unlikely defendants wouldn’t receive a fair trial.
The judge said he understood the defense’s argument, but noted “it is an adversarial process” and that it would be unethical for a prosecutor to file a charge against a defendant they did not reasonably believe to be guilty.
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Judge to review lead detective’s personnel files
Another motion filed by the defense sought for the court to review Cole’s confidential records in what is known as a Pitchess motion.
That motion, like most other court records in the case, remain under seal.
Following a brief recess Wednesday morning, van Rooyen granted that motion without hearing argument, saying that disclosures made in the prosecution and defense’s court filings were sufficient to find good cause for an in-camera, or, non-public, review of the confidential records.
Specifically, van Rooyen said he would review Cole’s files and records for any misconduct during his investigation with regards to Jennifer Hudson, a witness who testified in the hearing Aug. 12 that she heard Paul Flores admit in the late 1990s to burying Smart’s body.
Van Rooyen said he would also review Cole’s personnel records for any evidence he engaged in misconduct in any case he participated in over the past five years, including “unprofessional communications” that “could have impacted witness statements” in those cases, as well as any disciplinary records, if they exist.
Van Rooyen then cleared the courtroom to begin the review with the custodian of those records, the San Luis Obispo County Counsel’s Office, represented at the hearing by deputy county counsel Ann Duggan. Van Rooyen said he would attempt to notice the parties of his findings by noon, but the matter may be finalized in court Monday.
Testimony was expected to resume Monday.
This story was originally published August 25, 2021 at 10:27 AM.
