Posted on 04/27/2014 12:37:05 PM PDT by FBD
A lawyer on Reeves' defense team filed the petition this week asking the 2nd District Court of Appeal to allow Reeves to be released until trial on second-degree murder and aggravated battery charges.
"Because (Reeves) has wrongfully been denied pretrial release, he is being illegally detained," attorney Frances Martinez wrote.Reeves, 71, has been in the Pasco County jail since Jan. 13, when authorities say he shot fellow theater patron Chad Oulson, 43, of Land O'Lakes at the Grove Cobb Theatre in Wesley Chapel.The bullet hit Oulson in the chest and grazed the left ring finger of his wife, Nicole.
Authorities say the shooting happened after Reeves became irritated over Oulson's refusal to stop texting his 2-year-old daughter's caregiver during movie previews. Reeves left briefly to complain to management, then returned. Moments later, witnesses said they saw popcorn fly and heard a shot. They gave varying accounts at Reeves' bail hearing in February.
Because of those conflicting stories, prosecutors did not meet their legal burden to keep Reeves in jail, his attorneys argued. They also argue that prosecutors had to refute Reeves' claim he acted in self-defense, which is also required to deny bail.Curtis Reeves Jr., the retired Tampa police captain arrested in a fatal movie theater shooting during an argument over texting, is asking an appeals court to overturn a judge's ruling denying bail and free him from jail.
(Excerpt) Read more at tampabay.com ...
Curtis Reeves (Florida theater movie shooter) update
Curtis Reeves update.
Shooting an unarmed guy who’s holding a box of popcorn could definitely hint at that...
Oftentimes these cases are forgotten after the initial incident. It would be nice to follow this one all the way through trial and verdict.
A very different take on the event.
I bet if Reeves is released on bail he’ll shoot his wife and then himself.
Reeves remains confident he will win:
“Like I told everybody, I’ve spent 71 years doing the right thing and this guy just … anyway,” he said before trailing off.
Thanks for the ping.
So do I.
I bet if Reeves is released on bail he’ll shoot his wife and then himself.
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It wouldn’t surprise me. This guy should NEVER again see the light of day.
I agree with you. His next hearing is July 9th.
This is going to drag out for a long time, I suspect.
Thanks for the link. Article reports that Reeves claimed he was punched, and yet no visible marks were reported by the arresting deputy on Reeves face after the shooting.
There’s a group of people here, who still think that Reeves was justified in shooting Oulson. I suspect their support will vanish after a guilty verdict.
Last time I looked, shooting someone for throwing popcorn at you is not a valid self defense argument...
But hey, he's a LEO and he gets to make up the law as he sees fit.../ S
Initially his lawyer claimed that he wanted a speedy trial to be held within a couple of months. He has obviously changed his mind and wants to drag this thing out as long as possible and hence his appeal of the no bail ruling.
People are presumed innocent. Isn’t the issue of bail whether a person is a flight risk?
Exactly. There’s no desire for a speedy trial by guilty people. If they wait long enough, witnesses die, their stories change, memories fade. Reeves attorneys will drag this trial out as long as they can.
“It seems that the Judge believes Reeves may be a threat to society, and should be kept behind bars until his trial. “
Or that he has very little to lose by running. 71, murder charges, do the math. I wonder if the judge also realizes his fellow cops won’t be that eager to catch him if he ran.
An interesting thing my father noticed when he was arrested. You had an old man, handcuffed in the front, being ‘lead’ by a cop several feet away. Would anyone else under such serious charges be treated so kindly?
I don’t have, and I suspect no one else has, enough information to come to a definitive, firm conclusion about this tragedy. And, apparently, some of the independent eye witnesses just disappeared.
I do think however that there would be no way on god’s green earth that I would shoot a man for running his mouth at me or punching me. Now, if the decease had a weapon, and had threatened me, or my wife, that’s “a horse of a different color”.
Doesn’t look good for the old man, and that is sad, but he did take another man’s life for what looks like unjustified reasons.
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