Alan Hadfield, convicted more than two years ago of sexually abusing his son and daughter, will get one more chance to persuade the court to try his case again.
In a split decision released Friday, the Utah Supreme Court decided to grant Hadfield an evidentiary hearing to present what his attorneys say is new evidence. The hearing will determine whether Hadfield gets a new trial.Hadfield's attorneys say they can show that Barbara Snow, the therapist whose testimony helped convict Hadfield, was a counselor in three separate cases in which children testified they were victims of virtually the same bizarre behavior.
That behavior allegedly included sex rings among three to 20 families, all members of the same church; satanic rituals; and sex parties.
In each case, the children identified other children and adults in the neighborhood as having participated in the crimes.
Hadfield contends Snow's counseling techniques led the children to testify against him. Three of the five Utah Supreme Court justices said Hadfield should be given a chance to present that evidence, overturning a rejection by a lower court.
However, two justices said the evidence was either old, irrelevant or inadmissible.
Officials in the state attorney general's office said the attorney handling the case was out of town and not immediately available for comment. Hadfield's attorneys also could not be reached.
-The majority opinion, written by Justice Christine Durham, said:
"The jury in this case was confronted with a strange and troubling scenario. If the children were not telling the truth, what possible reason could there be for them to fabricate such bizarre information? On the other hand, if they were telling the truth about defendant, presumably they were telling the truth about the neighborhood activities as well."
She rejected the state's claims that some of the information it would be required to refute that evidence is "privileged."
"We know of no principle of law limiting a defendant's exploration of facts in his defense because the state refuses or is unable to adduce other facts in rebuttal," she wrote.
Associate Chief Justice Richard C. Howe and Richard C. Davidson, an appeals court judge sitting in for justice I. Daniel Stewart, signed the majority opinion.
-The minority opinion, written by Chief Justice Gordon R. Hall, said:
"The evidence defendant sought to introduce in support of his motion for a new trial was not in fact newly discovered evidence. Rather, it was cumulative, irrelevant or inadmissible. It was therefore insufficient to support his motion."
Justice Michael Zimmerman agreed with the dissenting opinion.
Hadfield's attempt to have the new evidence heard was originally denied by 4th District Judge Cullen Y. Christensen, who said the evidence would be inadmissible in a trial because it was irrelevant and would complicate the trial beyond permissible bounds.
Hadfield was sentenced to six months in the Utah County Jail with work-release provisions.
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Defendant's case
Alan Hadfield's attorneys want to present evidence that allegedly includes:
-A doctoral thesis in which therapist Barbara Snow discussed using authority and punishment to modify the behavior of patients.
-Testimony that Snow used this technique to modify responses of her patients.
-Testimony from law enforcement personnel that false information they deliberately gave Snow later appeared in statements of children she interviewed.
-A correlation of facts in three other cases in which Snow was a therapist.