DUBIOUS DANGEROUS DRIVING CONVICTION

Ignored witness could make a difference

The defense attorney for Aaron Matthew Dunagan says he has a new eyewitness to the automobile wreck that landed his client in jail, and he’s asking the court to grant a new trial so the witness has a chance to testify. “Had we had this guy to testify in the case, the outcome of the trial would have been very different,” said Steve Lanier, the defense attorney for Dunagan in a trial that concluded last month.

Dunagan, 26, was sentenced to 10 years in prison on charges resulting from a 2004 wreck on Ga. 53 that left Candice Wilson Bendek in a coma. He was convicted of reckless driving, serious injury by reckless driving and failure to obey a traffic control device. Jurors found him not guilty of driving under the influence and a related charge.

Don McDonald, a financial adviser with H&R Block in Rome, went to Lanier’s office after learning of the convictions because he felt a “grave injustice” had been done, Lanier’s court filing states. McDonald states in a sworn affidavit filed with the court that he witnessed the wreck and that Dunagan was not at fault.

Lanier filed his motion for a new trial Thursday with the Floyd County Superior Court, along with a handful of other motions, including a request for the court to reduce Dunagan’s sentence and a motion for bond so that Dunagan can be released from jail pending his appeal.

Steve Cox, the assistant district attorney who prosecuted the case, said Lanier’s motion for new trial is standard procedure, and he doesn’t think McDonald’s testimony would have made any difference in the outcome of the trial. “To me it doesn’t really change the fact that the defendant ran a red light at a very high speed without any attempt to stop,” Cox said, citing the testimony of the prosecution’s witnesses. Still, Dunagan’s family and friends are hopeful the new eyewitness will be the young man’s chance to escape what they see as a wrongful conviction. “We knew all the time there was a witness, and we beat the bushes trying to find him,” said Hoyt Brown, a friend of the family. “I believe the boy’s innocent. I can’t sleep good at night knowing there’s an innocent person in jail.”

Brown said the witness met Dunagan at the scene of the wreck and gave him his card, but Dunagan was shaken up and lost the card. Lanier tried to find the man, the attorney said, but he was not listed as an official witness in the police report, and no one knew his name.

McDonald states in his affidavit he personally knew the officer at the wreck scene and offered to share his version of the story, but the officer declined his help. He states he didn’t come forward before the trial’s conclusion because he thought Dunagan would be found not guilty. Cox said the prosecution was unaware there was another witness at the time of the trial, and he said the police did their best to interview the most useful witnesses at the wreck scene. “There was so much chaos at the scene,” he said. “I think the officers worked it as best they could, but there were scores of people standing around in no time at all.”

Dunagan’s mother, Melissa Dunagan, says she feels sympathy for Bendek and her family but doesn’t think her son is guilty of the crimes with which he was charged. “My heart breaks for them, but our hearts are broken, too,” she said.

The motion for new trial will be heard after a full transcript of the initial trial is completed, Lanier said. He predicted it would take four to six weeks for a judge to schedule a hearing, but he said the court could hear the motions for reduced sentence and for bond pending appeal sooner than that.

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