August 22, 2003


Weaver waits for trial one year later





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CLACKAMAS COUNTY - This weekend will mark one year since the bodies of Ashley Pond and Miranda Gaddis were found in Ward Weaver's backyard.

It could take nearly another year for Weaver's murder trial to begin.

Ward Weaver remains in protective custody at the Clackamas County jail. He is confined to his cell 23 hours a day.

He is let out only for an hour to take a shower, meet with his attorneys and make phone calls.

For his own safety, Weaver is not allowed any interaction with other inmates.

Oregon City revisited

"When he first came here there were a lot of inmates that expressed the desire to do harm to him, so we've been real careful about maintaining his safety," said Captain Don Howard, Clackamas County Jail.

It was at the Clackamas County jail last February where Weaver granted KATU News an exclusive interview. He seemed confident about his future - no matter what happened in his murder trial.

"I am not worried about any conviction I get, none," Weaver said. "I don't care if it's a year, twenty years, a hundred years or the death sentence - I'm not worried about any of it."

One month after that interview, Weaver's court appointed defense attorney quit the case, saying there had been an irremediable and irreconcilable breakdown in the attorney-client relationship.

Weaver was assigned a new defense team: attorneys Michael Barker and Peter Fahy.

They've filed a motion to challenge the jury pool in Clackamas County, a defense tactic that questions whether the pool of potential jury members accurately reflects the people who live in the county.

Assuming Weaver's defense team works on his case during half of a 40-hour work week - Oregon taxpayers have paid his current attorneys about $35,000 and his previous defense team $98,000.

Add that to the $35,000 dollars it has cost so far to house him at the Clackamas County Jail and Ward Weaver has apparently cost taxpayers a nearly $170,000.

In the end, this case will cost in the neighborhood of one million dollars, much like the highly publicized case of Christian Longo.





www.katu.com/news/story.asp?ID=60116