Chapter 17 – Enter Meyer
Thursday November 16, 1967 – Tuesday October 15, 1968
By Thursday November 16, 1967, plans were underway to retry Dennis Terry Sites for the murder of Carrie Batdorff Layser as required by the decision of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court. District Attorney Alvin B. Lewis Jr. had considered, but rejected as too expensive, appealing the decision to the U.S. Supreme Court.
Meanwhile, Sites was being scheduled to return to the county jail from the Eastern State Penitentiary. Lewis was hopeful that the retrial could be scheduled for December, but this seemed unlikely as the defense had several more motions up its sleeve, such as a request for a change of venue and to disqualify Judge Gates.
And there was growing speculation on the costs of the trials. Although not all the figures were in yet, it was estimated that the cost of the first trial came to between $10,000 and $15,000.
On the 24th on the month it was reported that none of the pending murder cases, including the Sites case, would make it to trial for the December term.
Two motions were presented to Judge Gates on December 4 asking for a change of venue for the new trial and for him to disqualify himself from participating in the trial.
If the judge were to grant the change of venue, then he would automatically be removed from the trial. However, if he were to disqualify himself from participating in the trial, would he be able to rule on the change of venue?
Needless to say the District Attorney vigorously opposed both motions.
And we have a new judge!
Not because Judge Gates disqualified himself, but because the new year brought a new judge. Starting in 1968 Lebanon County was a two judge county. You’ve come a long way, baby!
So Judge L. E. Meyer took over the case, and he would rule on the change of venue petition.
Meanwhile the defense counsel submitted two more bills totaling $1806.
On February 7 Judge Meyer heard testimony from the news media in the change of venue hearing. James D. Shellhamer of the Daily News and Henry H. Homan of WLBR were among those who gave testimony.
On February 13 Judge Meyer denied the petition for a change of venue.
Judge Meyer said: “After an examination of the record of the trial, the court can only repeat that the news media were more than falr and restrained In their reporting of the trial.”
Referring to the Lebanon Daily News account of the trial Judge Meyer said, “The most that can be said is that the newspaper, in very restrained reporting, referred to a repudiation of a tape recorded confession, and reported that there was a major discrepancy between the testimony of Sites and the taped confession. There were no unusual headlines in the newspapers which could cause any settled hatred of the defendant.”
It had been reported that the Assistant District Attorneys R. Hart Beaver and George E. Christianson would once again lead the case for the commonwealth even though District Attorney Lewis was no longer disqualified from participating, because they were most familiar with the case, however, by this time Beaver had returned to private practice, so it would be Christianson alone leading the charge.
On February 15 the defense counsel said they would appeal Judge Meyer’s denial of their petition for a change of venue. Judge Meyer, when asked about it, said his decision was not appealable.
In May the state Supremes agreed with him and ordered that Dennis Terry Sites be retried in Lebanon County.
In July defense counsel billed the county another $800, plus $79 for out of pocket expenses, for their work on the change of venue appeal.
The retrial was now scheduled for September.
August 16, 1968
The two attorneys who had been representing Dennis Terry Sites requested permission to withdraw as his counsel and that permission was granted.
This was expected to delay the retrial once again.
August 19, 1968
Judge L. E. Meyer named attorneys James T. Reilly and Frederick S. Wolf as defense counsel for Dennis Terry Sites.
August 20, 1968
The court appointments of Attorneys James T. Reilly and Frederick S. Wolf as defense counsel for Dennis Terry Sites were officially made in open court by Judge L. E. Meyer.
Sites agreed to accept the two attorneys, even though Judge Meyer pointed out to Sites that Reilly had served as attorney for Mrs. Sites when she divorced him after his first murder trial and that Wolf was now the law partner of R. Hart Beaver who had represented the commonwealth at the first murder trial.
Lebanon County was a small place. Good help was hard to find.
October 15, 1968
Judge L. E. Meyer denied two motions made by court-appointed attorneys for Dennis Terry Sites.
Attorney Reilly asked permission for the 25-year-old former Richland man to be examined by a psychiatrist and for the employment of a private investigator at county expense.
Judge Meyer turned down the requests on grounds that a valid reason had not been given for the requests.
Assistant District Attorney George E. Christianson argued that at the first trial testimony had been given by a defense-appointed psychiatrist and at that time a private investigator had been employed.
Reilly said he was not satisfied with the testimony given by the defense psychiatrist at the first trial.
“As to his conclusions?” Judge Meyer asked.
“By his performance,” Reilly answered.
You may want to review Chapter 12 for the psychiatrist’s testimony.
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