Convicted rapist denied new trial

SANDPOINT — A 1st District Judge is declining to grant a new trial to a Blanchard man convicted of kidnapping and raping a former girlfriend.

Counsel for Joe Frederick Ransom argued for the declaration of a mistrial due to alleged juror misconduct during the proceedings last month. A family friend of Ransom’s testified that she heard a juror express an opinion about the case to another juror during a break in the case.

Jurors were repeatedly admonished by the court during the trial not to express their personal opinions about the case before it was submitted to them for deliberation.

Kathi Malakowsky told Judge Buchanan she heard the juror remark, “I really truly believed her.”

Malakowsky said during an Oct. 28 hearing that she believed the juror was referring to the alleged victim in the case, who gave a harrowing account of her alleged ordeal at a remote cabin outside Spirit Lake on April 23.

Deputy Public Defender Susie Jensen argued the juror misconduct effectively denied Ransom a fair trial. Bonner County Prosecutor Louis Marshall countered that the juror’s comment could have been in reference to just about anybody, including Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, who was fending off multiple accusations of sexual assault as Ransom’s trial unfolded.

Judge Barbara Buchanan turned down the defense motion for a mistrial and de novo proceedings, according to a written opinion filed on Friday.

Buchanan noted that two women testified on Oct. 12. They included the alleged victim and a sexual assault nurse examiner.

Buchanan allowed that it was possible that the juror was referring to the alleged victim, but added that it was just as likely that the woman was talking about somebody else.

“The evidence presented by the defendant is simply insufficient to support a finding of jury misconduct,” Buchanan said in the eight-page ruling.

Buchanan added that Idaho Court of Appeals law makes it clear that credible evidence must be presented in order for a new trial to be granted.

A jury of seven men and five women convicted Ransom, 54, on Oct. 14. He is being held without bail and is scheduled to be sentenced on Dec. 12.