UPDATE: Attorney Randy Martin O'Neal filed a court response Friday stating that he'd mistakenly filed the wrong version of the motion to dismiss in the case that did not contain the correct footnotes and case citations. He went on to say that the cases cited do exist, but that they were not the case citations he'd meant to include in the motion to dismiss.
The defendants in the Amber Spradlin case are set to be before a judge in Floyd County Monday morning. The judge's concerns about O'Neal's motion to dismiss will be among the things discussed.
The judge overseeing the Amber Spradlin case in Floyd County has ordered the attorney for one of the accused to explain alleged issues in a court filing – or potentially face being held in contempt.
In the order filed Friday, Chief Regional Circuit Judge Eddy Coleman wrote that Randy Martin O’Neal, the attorney for Michael “MK” McKinney III, cited case law that could not be located.
McKinney is charged with murder and seven counts of complicity to tampering with evidence in connection with Spradlin’s death.
The case law in question was cited in a motion to dismiss the indictment against MK McKinney, arguing that the “secrecy of the Grand Jury” was breached and alleging that members of the public and media were notified before arrests were made.
“Because the Court was hopeful that counsel had not cited fictious cases, it was ordered that counsel furnish to the court copies of the referenced cases, and/or corrected citations of those cases,” Coleman wrote in his order Friday.
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Attorney for Michael McKinney III files motion to dismiss indictment
O’Neal filed an amended motion to dismiss after the judge’s initial order “without correcting the citations or providing copies of the cases cited” and instead “cited cases that do exist in place of the ones he had previously cited,” Coleman wrote in the Friday order.
O’Neal is ordered to appear at a hearing on Monday and “show cause, if any he has, why he should not be held in contempt of this Court.”
LEX 18 attempted to reach O’Neal but did not hear back by the end of the day Tuesday.
