A Boulder City murder case is already turning contentious just weeks after charges were filed, with allegations that the suspect's lawyer made false statements in court, and claims that the court denied the victim's family their rights.
WATCH: 13 Investigates' Darcy Spears has the latest: Victim's widow says she was illegally barred from Boulder City bail hearingJohn Powell Morgan was due in court Tuesday for arraignment on the murder charge, but the case was continued, frustrating the family and friends of victim Scott Dingman.
Morgan shot Dingman to death in May 2021, claiming self-defense. The case was closed until my investigation uncovered flaws and inconsistencies in the original police investigation. Boulder City reopened the case, and Morgan was arrested and charged with murder in late October.
The murder case against Morgan took years to reach a courtroom. My investigation led to allegations of corruption, negligence and incompetence by Boulder City police, now the subject of a civil lawsuit. Now the court itself is being accused of violating victims' rights.
Boulder City Judge Christopher Tillman has already recused himself. Now Dingman's widow, Ashley, said she's had to fight for access.
Her attorney, Maggie McLetchie, said Ashley was illegally kept out of Morgan's bail hearing, despite Marsy's Law giving families of homicide victims rights in court.
"I believe strongly in the rights of defendants, including the presumption of innocent until proven guilty. But according to our state constitution, victims have rights too," McLetchie said.
McLetchie filed a motion Tuesday saying Ashley had a right to have her safety considered when bail was set, but the court refused her and her attorney access to the hearing.
"They've had to fight to get access to information and they've had to fight to get justice started," McLetchie said.
McLetchie said Ashley would have told the judge her family still fears Morgan. The motion accuses him of threatening and harassing them, even following the family to Texas after they moved there to get away from him. It also says Ashley believes he's a flight risk.
"The state believes the proof is evident or the presumption is great in this case that Mr. Morgan in fact committed this crime and we are asking that he remain no bail," Deputy District Attorney Michael Giles told Judge Gregor Mills at the Oct. 26 bail hearing.
But Morgan's attorney, Louis Schneider, argued for bail and continued to push the self-defense claim.
"To make it appear as if somehow his client was in fear for his life, and to make Scott Dingman seem like a danger," McLetchie said.
"I have a video that does exist of Mr. Dingman carrying a concealed weapon as a convicted felon and holding my client in a chokehold and pointing a loaded gun to his head about two hours before the shooting," Schneider said at the bail hearing.
McLetchie calls that a smear campaign. Her motion says Dingman was not a convicted felon and includes his concealed firearm permit, which was active when he was killed. She said that proves Schneider made false statements to the court while arguing for bail.
"Mr. Schneider and defense attorneys have their own jobs to do, but the evidence doesn't support Mr. Schneider's account of the events. And then, obviously, hearing that can feel unfair to members of the family," McLetchie said.
The motion says if Ashley or her attorney had been at the hearing, they could have "set the record straight." Instead, the judge granted Morgan bail.
It was a million-dollar bail, and Morgan quickly posted it. But he's still behind bars. A Henderson judge is holding him without bail in another case after police said he had an unpermitted gun and brass knuckles when he was arrested for murder, violating his release conditions in a separate felony cocaine case. Schneider did not respond to my request for comment for this story.
The murder case returns to Boulder City court Nov. 17.
