New evidence in missing kid case

Cathy Scott

Friday, March 29, 1996 | 11:59 a.m.

A preliminary hearing for the Las Vegas couple charged in the disappearance and alleged killing of their baby daughter five years ago was postponed for the second time, this time because of new evidence.

The couple's 17-year-old daughter was slated to testify Thursday in Justice of the Peace Nancy Oesterle's courtroom. And in an unusual move, at the teen's request, the court had given her permission to sit near her parents.

James Meegan, 39, and his wife, Lillian Meegan, 35, promised attorneys that they would not try to touch their daughter if she sat near them.

"We haven't seen her in a couple of months," James Meegan said.

Permission was granted, and their oldest daughter was going to sit in the seats near her parents, who were sitting one chair away from each other, after her testimony.

But the teen's testimony was postponed by Oesterle at the request of the Meegans' attorneys to give the defense an opportunity to investigate "new developments in the case." The preliminary hearing was reset for 8 a.m. April 11. The defendants, in turn, waived their rights to a speedy hearing.

After the postponement, Deputy District Attorney John Lukens declined to say what the developments were.

"There have been some new developments," he said. "I really can't comment on the specifics."

Lukens noted that "we haven't stopped in our search for what happened to this child. Every day we are searching."

The delay didn't pose a problem, he said, because the case was "so long ago that there is no rush."

A 35-minute discussion between the defense and prosecution attorneys and the Meegans took place before the proceedings, but Lukens said the talks Thursday did not include a plea bargain for the couple.

Outside the courtroom, Valerie and Dennis Jensen, the adoptive parents from Orange County, Calif., who took baby Francine in for the first nine months of her life, wore buttons with the infant's photo on them.

Before his February arrest, James Meegan told the SUN he did not murder his 11-month-old daughter, who disappeared in the fall of 1990. Witnesses told police that Francine was last seen when James Meegan carried her out of the family's Las Vegas home. He later returned without her, Metro Police said.

Lillian Meegan faces felony child neglect charges in not reporting the disappearance of Francine to police. James Meegan is charged with murder. The couple has five other children, ages 3 to 17, who have been in the county's custody since Feb. 14.