The attorney for Cheshire home invasion suspect Joshua Komisarjevsky appeared in court on Tuesday to argue that he should not be held in contempt of court for speaking about the case on Sept. 24. Judge Roland Fasano heard the case and issued no ruling.
Attorney Jeremiah Donovan made statement outside court when Steven Hayes was being tried for the 2007 murders of Jennifer Hawke-Petit and her daughters Hayley, 17, and Michaela, 11, inside their Cheshire home.
Jennifer Hawke-Petit and Michaela were also sexually assaulted and testimony gave brutal details about the horrors that happened in the house.
Donovan told reporters he didn't want anyone hearing the testimony in Hayes' trial to come away with the perception that Michaela was sodomized.
Hayes has since been convicted and his trial is in the penalty phase. Komisarjevsky has not yet been tried.
Chief Medical Examiner, Dr. Wayne Carver had testified during Hayes' trial that there was evidence that Michaela had been sodomized.
A detective who took the stand earlier in the trial, told jurors Hayes told him Komisarvejsky admitted to sexually assaulting Michaela, and that Komisarjevsky had ordered Hayes to sexually assault Jennifer Hawke-Petit to "square things up" between them.
An attorney, who requested not to be identified, said "the defense community is appalled" at what Donovan did.
“It is alleged. Attorney Donovan made extrajudicial statements relating to the matters of State v. Hayes and State v. Komisarjevsky for public dissemination that raise a reasonable likelihood of material, prejudicial impact upon the Hayes trial currently in progress and the Komisarjevsky trial to follow, all in flagrant violation of this court’s Order of September 13, 2010,” the order to show cause states.
new TWTR.Widget({ version: 2, type: 'list', rpp: 30, interval: 6000, title: 'Steven Hayes is on trial in the Cheshire home invasion case. ', subject: 'Steven Hayes\' Trial ', width: 425, height: 500, theme: { shell: { background: '#265cad', color: '#ffffff' }, tweets: { background: '#ffffff', color: '#444444', links: '#40c2c2' } }, features: { scrollbar: true, loop: false, live: true, hashtags: true, timestamp: true, avatars: true, behavior: 'all' } }).render().setList('NBCConnecticut', 'cheshire-trial').start();The family of the victims was angry about Donovan's statement.
"We're completely outraged by Mister Donovan's statement today on the courtroom steps," Cynthia Hawke-Renn said outside the courthouse last week. "We don't need his sympathy. We don't want his sympathy."
Dr. William Petit, the only survivor of the home invasion, previously said he hopes that Judge Fasano "will give us appropriate relief by citing him for contempt of court."
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