The bagel shop parking lot assault case of former CIA agent Raymond Davis was set to begin this past week, but is facing another postponement.
According to Larry Klayman, attorney for Jeff Maes – who was allegedly seriously injured by Davis in an argument over a parking space in Highlands Ranch – the criminal trial is now scheduled for Feb. 12, one day after the civil trial gets under way.
“It’s a very unusual circumstance,” Klayman said of the two trials being stacked on top of one another, adding that the criminal trial was delayed so that the prosecution could “rediscover what they already knew – that Maes’ injuries were caused by Davis and not pre-existing by nature.”
According to Deputy District Attorney Doug Bechtel, the prosecution is still in the process of gathering all of Maes’ medical history in order to prove that the injuries allegedly sustained outside of Einstein Brothers Bagels in October 2011 were indeed not pre-existing.
“I don’t have all the information I need and obviously I need to disclose (everything) to the defense,” Bechtel said in a recorded conversation with Klayman that Klayman released to the Herald. “In a preliminary hearing doubt, quite frankly, doesn’t matter. Is there a reasonable belief that the defendant could have committed this crime is enough. Once we start trial and are talking about ‘beyond a reasonable doubt,’ now I have to be able to rebut every one of their defenses.”
On that same recording, Bechtel said there are no plea deals being discussed between Davis’ defense and the prosecution at this time.
It was previously reported in an Aug. 30 story in the Herald that Klayman is under the impression that the DA has been talking with the CIA and that the CIA has been putting pressure on the DA to work a plea deal with the defense, so that Davis’ former role with the agency is not exposed in what expects to be a high-profile case.
The DA’s office has adamantly denied having had any contact with the CIA. Davis, 37, is charged with second-degree felony assault for punching the 50-year-old Highlands Ranch man, knocking him to the ground and allegedly seriously injuring his back, neck and arm.
Davis made national headlines in January 2011 when he was jailed in Pakistan for killing two Pakistani men he said were trying to rob him. An unknown source later paid $2.34 million in blood money to have him released. Seven months after his return to the U.S., Davis got into the altercation in the Highlands Ranch parking lot.
“They (CIA) want to shut down the case because they don’t want any information about Raymond Davis to get out, and I think they are also worried that if they don’t run interference for him that he may squeal in terms of what he was doing over there in Pakistan and perhaps on other matters too,” Klayman said
If the charges remain as they are and Davis is convicted, the defendant faces a mandatory minimum sentence of five years in prison and a maximum sentence of 16 years. Davis entered a not-guilty plea April 30.
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