A federal judge Tuesday set final preparations for next week’s trial of Lyndreth Wall, the former Ute Mountain Ute leader and Cortez school board member accused of federal sex assault charges.
Wall faces 20 felony counts under the Major Crimes Act, including eight charges of sexual abuse, each of which carry a potential life sentence, and 12 counts of abusive sexual contact, punishable by up to 10 years in prison. He has pleaded not guilty to all counts.
The trial starts Monday.
Wall’s case has drawn heightened attention in the tribal town of Towaoc and across Montezuma County because it involves a longtime community leader accused of abusing his trusted position of power. Federal prosecutors say Wall exploited his standing as a respected figure and traditional healer to manipulate and sexually abuse multiple women and a child ages 12 to 15 in incidents spanning several years.
During a pretrial conference Tuesday before U.S. District Judge Gordon Gallagher, defense attorneys and prosecutors discussed jury instructions, late disclosures of evidence and an incident involving recorded jail calls that included conversations between Wall and one of his attorneys. Wall, who is being held at the La Plata County Jail, appeared via video link.
Gallagher presided over U.S. District Court in Grand Junction.
Defense attorney Laura Hayes Suelau said the federal public defender’s office recently received hundreds of pages of additional discovery and roughly 250 recorded jail calls spanning July through October from government prosecutors, many of which she said arrived late and would be difficult to fully review.
“There’s no reason why those calls couldn’t have been dispatched in batches, which would have made it more feasible for us,” Suelau told the court. “We will be asking your honor to exclude those calls.”
Assistant U.S. Attorney Jeffrey Graves said the government does not intend to use any of the calls at trial and that one mistakenly recorded attorney-client call was deleted after discovery of the error. Gallagher agreed no misconduct occurred and found no discovery violations.
“I am not finding the government did anything wrong or violated any discovery rules,” he said.
Defense attorneys also raised objections to portions of the proposed jury instructions, including language defining reasonable doubt and other phrases they say are not present in the statute. Gallagher declined to alter the reasonable doubt definition.
The prosecution and defense teams will have about 90 minutes to question prospective jurors during voir dire Monday, though Gallagher said additional time may be granted if more jurors are called. He asked both parties to craft and agree upon a brief statement describing the nature of the case, noting that jurors should be informed about its sensitive subject matter before questioning begins.
The court also discussed Rule 413 evidence, which allows testimony about prior sexual assaults in some circumstances as an exception to the rule that generally prohibits character evidence to prove guilt. Gallagher said he would issue limiting instructions, and a lengthy initial instruction, when such evidence is introduced.
In another matter, Suelau asked the judge about the terms of questioning a witness, identified as S.S. in court papers, about why she did not initially report allegations of abuse. Gallagher said because of the delicacy of the matter, he would consider it overnight before issuing an order.
The trial will begin Monday at a federal court in Durango with jury check-in at 8 a.m. It is expected to last 10 days.
