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YOUNGSTOWN -- A hearing that was scheduled for Tuesday for additional testimony on whether Chaz Bunch, 39, should get a new trial in his 2002 rape case did not take place because of the illness of a defense attorney. It has been reset for 8:30 a.m. Dec. 4.
The hearing began in September in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court, but Judge Maureen Sweeney ordered that it would have to be delayed to give local attorney Mark Lavelle more time to read all of the transcripts from Bunch's trial.
During questioning in September of Lavelle as a potential expert prosecution witness, Bunch's attorney, Joe Peatituce, argued that Lavelle could not serve as an expert witness without being more knowledgeable about the case.
The reason for the hearing is to determine whether Bunch received ineffective assistance of his legal counsel during his 2002 trial. The reason for questioning whether Bunch received ineffective assistance of counsel was raised because Bunch's attorney did not secure the testimony of an expert witness regarding the unreliability of the testimony of victims such as the one in Bunch's case.
The Ohio Supreme Court late last year ordered the court to hear testimony on whether the decision of Bunch's attorney in 2002 not to seek an expert witness changed the outcome of Bunch's trial.
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