Healea attorney wants to close hearing

Because he wants the special master to hear confidential information, the attorney for Moniteau County Prosecutor Shayne Healea wants a Dec. 21 hearing on the case closed to the public, including the media.

In a three-page motion filed Friday, Jefferson City lawyer Shane Farrow told the Shelby County Circuit Court he "intends to present evidence, in the form of a video and audio recording of (Healea's) entire conversation with counsel on the night of his arrest, (that was) made at and by the Columbia Police Department and distributed to the Missouri Attorney General."

The attorney general's office is the special prosecutor in the case, and a spokeswoman said Friday they would respond to Farrow's motion at a 2:30 p.m. hearing next Thursday on the motion to close the Dec. 21 hearing.

She wasn't able to make any other comment.

Healea faces five felony charges filed after an Oct. 25, 2014, accident in Columbia - including leaving the scene of an accident where there was an injury or property damage and four counts of second-degree assault for operating a vehicle while intoxicated, resulting in an injury.

Healea reportedly backed his pickup truck, with the tailgate down, into a glass-block window in the back of Addison's Restaurant in downtown Columbia, and four people inside the restaurant were hurt by the broken glass.

Healea was arrested shortly after the accident and taken to the Columbia Police Department.

While at the police station, Farrow argued in an Oct. 3 motion to dismiss the case, Columbia police violated Healea's federal constitutional rights by recording Healea's phone conversation with his attorney.

In his new motion Friday, Farrow argued: "The content of the conversations contained in (Healea)'s evidence are privileged in nature and protected by the Fifth, Sixth and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution.

"To allow the presence of the media or any other member of the public at large (to attend the hearing) would only act to further violate the defendant's attorney-client privilege, due process rights and right to a fair trial."

In its response to Farrow's Oct. 3 motion, the state argued Healea's rights were not violated.

Assistant Attorney General Julie Tolle told the court, in an eight-page brief, the original arresting officer contacted Healea near the crash site, smelled alcohol on his breath, and noticed his eyes were glassy and bloodshot.

"(Healea) admitted to driving his vehicle prior to the accident, admitted to leaving the scene and admitted to consuming alcohol," she argued.

This week, Assistant Attorney General Darrell Moore - a former Greene County prosecutor - replaced Tolle as the special prosecutor in Healea's case, which was transferred to Shelby County on a change of venue from Boone County in March 2015.

After Farrow filed his Oct. 3 motion to dismiss the case, Circuit Judge Frederick Tucker named retired Judge Hadley Grimm as the special master to hear Farrow's and the state's arguments about Farrow's claim of constitutional violations.

Those arguments are set for 10 a.m. Dec. 21, either in Shelbyville or in Macon, if there's a courtroom available in Macon.

That's the hearing Farrow now wants to close.

He reminded the court in his motion Friday that Healea "has at no time waived his constitutional rights pertaining to the attorney-client privilege, due process or right to a fair trial and does not do so for purposes of this or any other hearing on this matter."