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Show Utah AoGo asks Yemie change for Haiffield By MARC HADDOCK In an unusual move, the Utah Attorney General's office has asked Fourth District Court Judge Cullen Y. Christensen to move Allan B. Hadfield's trial on charges of child sexual abuse from Utah County to Salt Lake County. Usually it is the defendant who requests such a change of venue. Citing extraordinary amounts of public attention, involving the news media, legislators and ex-legislators and neighbors of Hadfield who "have styled themselves as 'accused' 'ac-cused' also," the motion for change of venue claims the attention given the Hadfield case "has created a wave of public passion in favor of the defendant's position." Hadfield, who is charged with five counts of child sexual abuse, is scheduled to come to trial Dec. 9. The motion is particularly critical of television news coverage of the Hadfield case, and singles out KTVX's half hour program, "Lehi: Town in Torment" as being "weighted heavily in favor of the proposition that no one in Lehi was guilty of child sexual abuse and that the social worker made the whole thing up." Bift three groups are named as having brought an inordinate amount of attention to the Hadfield case: a group of Lehi residents who claim they have also been accused, but not charged, of similar crimes ; a current and- former member of the state' legislature; anil the -news" media. A memorandum filed to support the change of venue says charges like those leveled against Hadfield "are of a nature which most members of the community would like to disbelieve. The memorandum continued: "It is difficult for those not educated about the problem of child abuse to recognize that it does occur and that it is not always possible to determine who is capable of abuse from their outward behavior or appearance." The memorandum then says the neighbors who claim they have been accused but not charged "have tried to defend themselves by arguing their innocence as well as the innocence in-nocence of the defendant." Supporting the memorandum is a copy of a letter sent to the general authorities of the LDS Church by those neighbors "in which they allege that the accusations of sexual abuse of children were all dreamed up by a social worker who, they say, 'trained these children to lie about their innocent fathers and others.' " According to the memorandum, Hadfield has also sent two letters to the LDS general authorities. Utah Rep. Pat Nix, of Orem, is mentioned in the memorandum for comments quoted in this newspaper and others calling the Lehi investigation in-vestigation "a witch hunt." Former Utah Rep. Duane Johnson is also cited for public comments in which he states, "These (those calling themselves 'accused') are not sinister people. Many of them are good, solid businessmen with good characters." "Thus from the very beginning," the memorandum states, "influential "in-fluential members of the community purporting to be able to tell who is guilty and who is not solely by determining whether the 'accused' are sinister people began to make such public statement protesting the innocence of the suspects based solely on rumor and speculation." While contending that newspaper coverage of Hadfield's preliminary hearing was factual, "the television stations, however, began to air opinions of the 'accused' that Hadfield and others are innocent." All three Salt Lake television news programs are mentioned in the memorandum, as well as KBYU-TV, but it is KTVX's 30-minute program, "Lehi: Town in Torment," which gets the most attention. ' In addition to airing the claims of those who say they are 'accused,' the memorandum says KTVX "rigorously, if inartfully," cross-examined cross-examined social worker Barbara ' Snow, who has been accused of coaching the children in their testimony. "This blatant attempt to discredit a primary witness for the State of utah at trail is unprecedented in local media reporting," the memorandum claims. It concludes, "The combination of improper influences created by those who deem themselves to have been 'accused,' and improper and irresponsible media reporting of matters that prejudice the State's case has resulted in an atmosphere of doubt in Utah County that makes it impossible for the State of Utah to obtain a trial by neutral, unbiased and impartial jurors." It is not known when Judge Christensen will rule on the change of venue request. |