A judge today ordered a key witness in the criminal case against Pierce County Superior Court Judge Michael Hecht to submit to a videotaped deposition next week to preserve his testimony in case he fails to appear for Hecht’s trial.
Joseph Pfeiffer, 21, was arrested Tuesday on a material-witness warrant and booked into the Pierce County Jail. Assistant attorney general John Hillman, who is prosecuting Hecht, alleges in court documents that Hecht paid Pfeiffer for sex on a number of occasions in summer 2008 and earlier this year.
Pfeiffer appeared before King County Judge James Cayce this morning for a bail hearing. Hillman requested that Pfeiffer be held in jail in lieu of $75,000 bail until his videotaped testimony could be secured.
Hillman told Cayce he feared Pfeiffer would disappear again before Hecht’s Oct. 12 trial on prostitution and harassment charges. Hecht has pleaded not guilty to both.
Hillman said today he had received information that Pfeiffer purposefully ducked a subpoena compelling his testimony and may have done so at the behest of two of Hecht’s friends. The names of those friends were not divulged.
Pfeiffer’s disappearance prompted Cayce to postpone Hecht’s trial earlier this month.
Hecht’s attorney, Wayne Fricke, opposed taking Pfeiffer’s testimony via video. Now that authorities have tracked him down, they should be able to ensure that he appears at trial, he said. Fricke added that he wanted to get Pfeiffer himself before a jury.
Fricke provided information to authorities that helped them find Pfeiffer.
Pfeiffer is likely to testify before the camera on Monday then be released from jail.
Also, today, Cayce ordered the videotaped depositions of two other prosecution witnesses – Joseph Hesketh IV and Michael Mundorff. Hillman alleges in court documents that Hecht threatened to kill Hesketh in August 2008 and that Mundorff witnessed the threat.
Both men are homeless and have been hard to communicate with about trial dates, Hillman argued in court documents asking that their testimony be recorded.
Both men are homeless and have been hard to communicate with about trial dates.
I believe trial dates are the least of these men’s problem while they are homeless and don’t know where their next meal is. I mean cmon now, do you think they really care about punctuality when they are in this state?
× Flag comment
Pfeiffer purposefully ducked a subpoena compelling his testimony and may have done so at the behest of two of Hecht’s friends.
It lookslike they are worried about staying alive and well if they testify. I guess I would leave and be hard to find if a judge had me contacted too. It wouldn’t be the first time pierce county has had problems with their judicial staff. Last time they and their co-horts were burning bars.
× Flag comment
What a circus environment.
× Flag comment