Quinn’s Change of Venue motion under consideration

Quinn’s Change of Venue motion under consideration
RRN/ Furnas County Courthouse in Beaver City, Nebr.
April 12th, 2021 | Dave Schroeder
A hearing was held in Furnas County District Court Monday morning on a change of venue motion by 56-year-old William "Billy" Quinn.   Quinn, of Oxford, has pled not guilty to 15 felony charges in connection with a child sex trafficking investigation in Furnas County.   He is set for a two-week jury trial beginning June 14th.    


Defense Attorney Joseph Howard asked District Judge David Urbom to move the trial out of the county due to what he described as "pervasive" and "prejudicial" pre-trial media coverage to the extent "we believe that Mr. Quinn is not going to be able to find a jury that hasn't already made up their minds about this case."


He offered 22 exhibits relating to information and statistics, from a news monitoring service and a media ratings service, on news coverage in television, radio, newspapers and website postings relating to the Quinn case.


Howard said there was inflammatory language in the coverage and that the coverage has been continuous.   He described it "as a big case as anywhere in Nebraska but, that it's being conducted in a very small county".  He asked Judge Urbom to take the trial to a larger county, with a greater population to find a jury that hasn't heard of the case or drawn their own conclusions.  He asked the Court to change the venue now instead of waiting until the eve of the trial and then finding they are unable to seat a jury 


Prosecutor Corey O'Brien, of the Nebraska Attorney General's Office, contended that the change of venue motion was "premature and not ripe at this point in time" and there was no evidence offered to justify moving the case.


     O'Brien said the Supreme Courts in Nebraska and the United States have made it  clear that "a change of venue is not appropriate unless and until it is determined that a fair and impartial jury can't be picked in the location that the crime occurred".  He said court precedent sets two exceptions on pre-trial publicity.  Those being whether the coverage was inflammatory and whether it was pervasive.


 He said the described media coverage as not being inflammatory and that all reporting has been "fact-based" and stem from attending open court hearings.   O'Brien said it was also noteworthy that the arrest and search warrant affidavits remain under seal and not available to the media, which would provide more details of the case.              


 Even if some of the coverage was found to be inflammatory, O'Brien said there was no evidence of how many actual Furnas County residents read those accounts on the various media platforms.   O'Brien said he has tried jury trials across the state in his role as a special prosecutor and that "based upon my experience it's stunning, when we do jury selection, about how many people don't pay attention to the news"  and that if "they do hear things, it's just nuggets of information they hear" and "not anything that's prejudicial".


O'Brien also spoke to the argument about the small population in Furnas County.    He said the size of the community has "zero relevancy" based upon court precedent as it could be argued in almost any case.   He acknowledged the possibility that pre-trial publicity could be sufficient at some point in time but, there was not enough evidence at this point and the defense had not met that burden.


 Judge Urbom took the arguments and exhibits under advisement and will issue a ruling at another time.   Meanwhile, another hearing in the case is set to be held in the Red Willow County Courthouse in McCook on April 27th to consider more pre-trial motions.
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