Lawyer for ‘Baby Doe’ mom wants case moved
The attorney for Rachelle D. Bond — the woman accused of helping dispose of her 2-year-old daughter’s body after her boyfriend allegedly killed the girl — wants the trial moved to Berkshire County.
Bond’s lawyer, Janice Bassil, said the media coverage and public reaction to the case, which captured worldwide attention when the body of Bella Bond, originally known as “Baby Doe,” washed up on a Boston Harbor island two summers ago, will make impaneling a jury in Suffolk County a difficult task.
“It isn’t just reporters writing things with their own take on it, people write comments about articles and a lot of the comments have been ‘why are we bothering with the trial, give them each a bullet,’ ‘they are disgusting,’ ‘they are monsters,’ ” Bassil told the court.
Bassil held up a copy of the Metro, a free publication, with a headline in reference to Bond that read “Monster.”
“The Metro is something free, people see it all the time, in the subways in particular, but there are copies everywhere,” Bassil said. “I would suggest to the court there is less of an interest (in Western Mass.) about what occurs in Boston.”
Judge Christine Roach commented, “The internet is going to be commented on, everything all of the time.”
The judge said the facts of the case are “sensationalistic in their very nature” and the court should take caution not to move a trial every time “the facts are sensational and people comment on it in an ugly way.”
“Why on earth would Berkshire want this and why would we give it to them?” Roach asked before hearing Bassil’s argument. “The jury pool is small, practically speaking, and some people in Berkshire County read the Globe and the Herald, you’re going to have some of the same issues.”
Roach said she would take the motion under advisement, along with two other defense motions, one of them asking that the charge of accessory after the fact be dismissed.
Bond’s case is due back in court on Jan. 26 for another pretrial hearing, but the 40-year-old woman is not expected to be present in court.
Michael P. McCarthy, Bond’s boyfriend who is accused of killing the toddler, is set to be tried in April.