A Superior Court judge this morning declined to force a pivotal witness in last year’s homicide conviction of National Guardsman Scott Allen Ansman to give a deposition in a civil suit brought by Martha Lou Harris, mother of the victim.
Because National Guard Sgt. Erik Hein suffers from both “a personal and a mental condition,” Judge Kevin C. Brazile ruled in a written statement, he will not be compelled to appear.
The precise nature of Mr. Hein’s condition is not known to the attorneys of Ms. Harris, who has brought a liability suit against the state, the National Guard and Mr. Ansman over the murder of her daughter, 29-year-old JoAnn Crystal Harris, at the Culver City National Guard Armory, Aug. 24, 2007.
While an explanation about Sgt. Hein’s was redacted from the papers presented by the state Attorney General’s office and handed to Ms. Harris’s attorneys, it was reported that his wife lost her life not long after the Ansman trial ended in May of last year. Additionally, his employers say that Mr. Hein has not worked in recent weeks — either for reasons they can’t disclose or because hey don’t know why he is absent.
Allison Bracy, a lawyer for Martha Lou Harris, said the ruling was neither a disappointment nor a setback in the planning for the case that is to go before Judge Brazile three weeks from today.
In a separate development, Ms. Bracy told the newspaper that a report the victim’s mother was eligible for a $400,000 insurance policy resulting from her daughter’s membership in the National Guard, was not true.
“She never really enlisted, but she was almost to that process,” Ms. Bracy said.
Mr. Ansman and JoAnn Harris evidently met at the Culver City Guard Armory when she came to inquire about joining the military. They struck up a relationship. According to Ms. Bracy, however, since the victim became pregnant while trying to join the Guard, her delicate condition fatally delayed her acceptance. Thus, she never qualified for the insurance policy.
