Bordt case remains open to public

The case against a German grandmother accused of drowning her grandson on St. George Island will remain open to the public for now, a Franklin County judge ruled Monday.

Circuit Judge James Hankinson denied all three requests from accused killer Marianne Bordt’s defense attorney — to close Monday’s probably cause hearing, shield evidence from the media and issue a gag order on prosecutors and the Franklin County Sheriff’s Office.

The judge did leave open some room for restricting access to further revelations as Bordt’s trial moves forward.

“I’m not attempting to cut off that certain matters should not be made public,” he said after listening to defense attorney Maria Ines Suber argue against Assistant State Attorney Robin Myers and two attorneys representing media interests.

“I don’t know what is out there that could be problematic,” Hankinson said. “There may well be items of discovery that should not be released.”

Bordt, 71, is charged with drowning her 5-year-old grandson Camden Hiers in a bathtub Jan. 4 while her husband was away on an errand. Her husband, Heinz Bordt, told investigators his wife confessed to killing their grandson “because she didn't want to see him grow up in a divorced home.”

The grandfather said he had returned from Apalachicola to find his grandson dead in the bathtub and his wife in long underwear and a jacket, soaking wet, on the beach.

Those bizarre details of the boy's death made international news, which Suber said sparked comments on the Internet that jeopardized Bordt’s right to a fair trial.

Hankinson commenced his decision by refusing to close the afternoon’s scheduled adversary preliminary hearing, which is needed to establish probable cause for going ahead with charges.

“Not a close question,” he said, noting that the trial likely would not be soon. “We’re probably talking about not less than a year from now.”

Hankinson denied the gag order, and encouraged the state attorney and sheriff’s offices, including all their personnel, to avoid any misconduct that “could conceivably cause a problem in keeping the trial in Franklin County” or result in disciplinary action on a professional level.

During the 90-minute hearing, Hankinson questioned Michael Glazer, the attorney representing the Tallahassee Democrat in its motion to intervene, as to what procedure should be followed when the defense feels a piece of evidence is exempt from Sunshine Law provisions.

In her argument, Suber had mentioned autopsy photos, which are not automatically required to be made public, or statements made between a husband and wife, which may be inadmissible in court.

Much of the discussion hinged on past cases with shielded evidence — such as the 2007 case of Gary Hilton, accused of killing Cheryl Dunlap, who had been the focus of a highly publicized search before her body was discovered in the Apalachicola National Forest. The judge told Glazer he had read Leon County Circuit Judge Terry Lewis’s decision in that case, which allowed for some shielding of sensitive evidence from the media.

“It’s a tricky area to deal with,” said Hankinson, urging the attorneys on both sides to find a creative solution to share information before it becomes public as part of the Clerk of Courts’ recordkeeping.

Both media attorneys contended the issues in the Bordt case were not comparable to Hilton’s, or to the high-profile Rachel Hoffman murder case, in which a 23-year-old Florida State graduate was killed during her cooperation as a police informant.

Hankinson said Suber failed to prove that intense publicity, including online comments, jeopardized Bordt’s rights. At one point, the judge told Christopher Ellrich, an investigator with the public defender’s office testifying as to the extent of publicity, that it is “stretching any credibility what impact that has on a jury in Franklin County,” referring to coverage in Russia, Germany and the Far East.

“I’m struggling a little bit to see the relevance of that,” Hankinson said.

The judge agreed with Glazer and Elizabeth Bevington, an attorney representing the Tallahassee television station WCTV, that extensive reporting, sensational details or the celebrity of a defendant are insufficient grounds to close a trial.

“There’s no evidence the jury pool has been tainted. This pales by comparison,” said Glazer, noting that most of the coverage has been limited to a three-day span following the murder.

“I do not find that there has been an extensive amount of publicity,” Hankinson said, in his ruling. “All murders are certainly terrible things.”

The judge said he also took into consideration the effect that widespread media reports have had on Franklin County. “This is a small county and I have weighed that in the balance,” he said. “Neither are people (Bordt or Hiers) who would be viewed as local residents.”

After the decision, Suber said she planned to launch an appeal, and Hankinson granted her request to cancel the day’s preliminary hearing. Myers groused that his witnesses were on hand, ready to testify, but did not formally oppose the cancellation.

Waiting in the courtroom were Brigitte Schroeder, a possible German translator, Sherriff’s Office Lt.  Ronnie Segree, who filed the arrest warrant, St. George Island Fire Chief Jay Abbott, Florida Department of Law Enforcement Special Agents Tom McGraw and Dave Wilson, and crime scene analyst Sean Yao, and Dr. Anthony Clark, a forensic pathologist.

Hankinson granted a continuance until the case resumes March 9.

On Wednesday, Feb. 10, a hearing was scheduled to empanel a grand jury, and Suber has been allowed to submit written questions that the judge may ask potential grand jurors. Once seated, the grand jury is set to meet Feb. 23 and decide whether to seek first-degree murder charges, which could carry the death penalty.

Presently, prosecutors have charged Bordt with second degree murder, the most severe crime they can charge in the absence of a grand jury decision, and aggravated child abuse with a deadly weapon.

Escorted by a deputy from the Leon County Jail, where she remains in custody, Bordt was in tears when she entered the courtroom, and had to be consoled by Suber. She grew more composed after meeting her court-appointed German translator, Michael Alsentzer, of Tallahassee.

He sat by her side throughout the hearing and translated the proceedings as they were occurring, as Hankinson had ordered.

At the end of the hearing, Alsentzer told the judge he occasionally had problems, because “listening and speaking at the same time is very difficult.”

Hankinson replied that he would address any concerns as they come up. “Just raise your hand and I will slow the proceedings down,” he said.