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SPRINGFIELD - The lawyer for Jason D. Strickland, accused of assaulting his 11-year-old stepdaughter in 2005, is asking that a judge be assigned to his client's case, after one judge was replaced and another took himself off the case in December.
The request is the latest chapter in a long legal saga that began when Haleigh Poutre, then 11, was hospitalized in September 2005.
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Strickland was arrested by Westfield police Sept. 20, 2005 and arraigned in District Court there.
He was later indicted in Hampden Superior Court on two counts of assault and battery on a child with substantial bodily injury and three counts of assault and battery with a dangerous weapon. He pleaded innocent to those charges in Superior Court on Aug. 8, 2006. He is free on $5,000 bail.
The weapons listed in the indictments were a shod foot, a bat and "a wand, a stick or tube." At the time of his indictment, Hampden County District Attorney William M. Bennett said Jason Strickland was being prosecuted under the joint venture theory with Holli Strickland, even though Holli Strickland was dead.
He said that meant Jason Strickland can be held responsible for any acts of Holli Strickland because he allowed someone else to assault the girl.
In addition to the changes in judges, Strickland's lawyer Greg T. Schubert withdrew from the case in August last year and Black became the defense lawyer. Richard J. Rubin joined Black on the defense in October.
There have been requests for continuances on both sides as well as various motion hearings and rulings.
The Strickland case has received much attention, because initially Poutre was the subject of an attempt by the state to remove a feeding tube that was keeping her alive. State officials said medical advice showed no chance of recovery.
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