Tuesday, Aug. 29, 2000 | 11:10 a.m.
Conan Pope, the 16-year-old boy accused of shooting his father to death in January, will be going to trial.
District Judge Kathy Hardcastle decided this morning there is sufficient evidence to try the boy in the Jan. 6 death of Frank Pope, 62.
Defense attorneys in the case had wanted the charges against the boy dismissed, claiming that prosecutors had acted inappropriately during grand jury proceedings. However, Hardcastle said this morning that their motion was without merit.
Pope, who is on house arrest, is scheduled to go to trial on murder charges Feb. 20. During the trial, Deputy Special Public Defender Kristina Wildeveld is expected to argue the boy's actions were warranted.
Wildeveld contends that Frank Pope was a "terrifying psychopath" who physically, sexually and emotionally abused his children and smothered an infant daughter to death in 1962.
Conan Pope told police he shot his father as Frank Pope walked toward his sister's room holding a broom in a threatening manner while in a rage over dirty dishes.
Prosecutors believe the boy shot his father intentionally and plan to put his sister on the stand to testify against him. Desiree Pope has told police her father was strict, but not abusive.
In her motion to dismiss the case, Wildeveld told Hardcastle that prosecutors withheld from grand jurors three witness statements in which former neighbors said they had always been afraid for the Pope children's safety and had "set up watches so that the children always had someone to run to when their lives were threatened."
If she had been successful, it would have been the second time the case against the boy would have been dismissed.
Wildeveld convinced District Judge Mark Gibbons to dismiss the boy's initial indictment in May after she revealed that prosecutors had not told grand jurors about Frank Pope's murder conviction and numerous child abuse investigations launched against him.
A preliminary hearing in June reinstated the charges.
In other matters this morning, Wildeveld asked Hardcastle to address Pope's schooling. Because he is on house arrest, the boy is not allowed to go to school. However, by law, school-aged children must receive some sort of schooling.
If Pope were still in jail, tutors would be required to visit him at state expense. However, Wildeveld said, the school district wants to charge Pope's guardians $80 for every half credit of schooling and an hourly rate, which they can't afford.
Hardcastle declined to address the matter, saying it should be taken up in civil court.
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