July 03--TAMPA -- A federal judge says law enforcement officers who attend Cortnee Brantley's upcoming federal trial will not be allowed to wear their uniforms unless they are testifying.
Brantley was the driver of a car in a motor vehicle stop that ended with the shooting deaths of two Tampa police officers, Jeffrey Kocab and David Curtis.
Her former boyfriend, Dontae Morris, is charged with murder in the deaths of the two officers June 29, 2010. He also is charged with killing three other people in the weeks before the police slayings: Derek Anderson, Rodney Jones and Harold Wright.
Brantley is scheduled to go on trial July 16 on federal charges she failed to report that Morris was a felon in possession of a firearm and ammunition.
U.S. District Judge James Moody has issued an order saying he noticed police attending pretrial hearings in uniform. Moody wrote that he is "concerned about the prejudicial effect this show of solidarity may have on the jury."
So "in order to preserve the fairness of the trial process," Moody wrote, no courtroom observers may wear law enforcement uniforms during the trial.
Tampa Police Department spokeswoman Laura McElroy said such orders are standard. During the trial of Humberto Delgado, McElroy said, Police Chief Jane Castor told officers not to wear uniforms "because the last thing we want is to inadvertently create an appeal issue."
Delgado was sentenced to death in February in the August 2009 murder of Tampa Cpl. Mike Roberts.
Brantley's attorney, Grady Irvin, filed a motion last week asking that her indictment be dismissed on the grounds of selective prosecution. Irvin cited evidence that another of Morris' former girlfriends, Quinisha McMillan, told police she saw Morris in possession of a gun after the Anderson shooting.
Moody denied the motion, saying the defense failed to demonstrate the Brantley prosecution was motivated by reasons that are constitutionally barred such as racial or religious discrimination or the defendant's exercise of her rights.
Irvin then filed a motion asking the judge to reconsider. Irvin argued that Brantley is being punished for exercising her right to remain silent by not cooperating with police in their investigation into the officers' killings. McMillan, on the other hand, talked to investigators.
On Monday, Moody denied that motion, saying Irvin had not pointed to "any facts that establish an improper motive" behind the prosecution "other than bare allegations related to her decision to remain silent."
Moody also said there were significant differences in circumstances. Most importantly, the judge wrote, McMillan was not present when Morris is said to have killed Anderson.
"In short," the judge wrote, "McMillan and Ms. Brantley faced an entirely different set of circumstances, involving the murders of different people, during different times, and McMillan and Ms. Brantley, as a result, committed entirely different acts. These differences demonstrate a rational basis for distinguishing between them."
Copyright 2012 - Tampa Tribune, Fla.
