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Above, Attorney Timothy J. Flaherty and defendant James Newton Blanchard V appearing at Norfolk Superior Court on Monday.
Justice continues to grind along slowly in Norfolk County.
Last May 24, a Saturday, a pickup truck driven by James Newton Blanchard V, who was allegedly intoxicated at the time, veered across the center line on Grove Street in Franklin and collided with another car traveling on the opposite side of the road. Occupants of the second car, Krisha Patel, age 5, was pronounced dead that day; her mother, Minaben Patel, 38, succumbed to her injuries several days later. The other occupant of the car, Mr. Patel, received only minor injuries.
On, Oct. 22, Blanchard pled not guilty to two counts of manslaughter while operating under the influence of liquor and one count of operating under the influence causing serious bodily injury. He had previously been arraigned in Wrentham District Court, where his bail was set at $250,000.
Then a Dec. 23 pretriai conference was postponed to Thursday, Jan. 29, but that day a somewhat different scenario unfolded. Blanchard's attorney, Timothy J. Flaherty and prosecuting attorney, Assistant Norfolk County DA, Sean Riley came forward and stood before the judge. Blanchard was not present. Flaherty proceeded to explain that he and Riley were still working to gather and evaluate all evidence through discovery. and that the state accident reconstruction report was still not complete. However, he continued, based on the detailed grand jury notes provided to him by the prosecution and the toxicology report, both he and the prosecution felt they would be "ready to move forward" by late March, which turned out to be Monday, March 30.
But although Blanchard did appear before the judge this time, it was the briefest of appearances. This time Flaherty said the State Police accident report was on the point of completion but that he, the defense attorney, would need another 60 days to review it..
The attorney representing the Commonwealth, not Riley this time, indicated that he had no objection to that timeline. And Flaherty added that, for the next court date, he looked forward to having "a robust sidebar conversation."
The Judge set June 10 for a return date for all parties.
