Sarah Allen will not have to stand trial with her husband, who has been charged with assaulting their child.
AUBURN – Sarah Allen, the Lisbon mom accused of shaking her baby to death on Feb. 14, won her first court battle this week.
A Superior Court judge granted her request to have a separate trial from her husband.
Allen’s husband, Jeremy, has been charged with assaulting their son, Nathaniel, on Feb. 13, but he has never been implicated in the child’s death.
State prosecutors planned to try the couple at the same time before the same jury. They believed doing so would give the jury a full picture of what was happening in the Allen home on the days leading up to Nathaniel’s death.
But lawyers for Sarah and Jeremy Allen protested.
The attorneys argued that a joint trial would be unfair because it would allow the state to present certain evidence, such as the autopsy photographs of the boy’s body, that might not be permitted at both trials if they were held separately.
The state and the defense lawyers presented their arguments to Justice Ellen Gorman at a hearing earlier this month. Gorman issued her written ruling Tuesday.
“Given the substantial possibility of prejudice to Ms. Allen, the relatively straightforward charge against Mr. Allen and the problems associated with multiple juries, the court is convinced” that joining the trials would be an error, Gorman ruled.
Even though both Jeremy and Sarah Allen requested separate trials, Gorman explained in her ruling that she was concerned about the potential for prejudice against Sarah Allen, not her husband.
A 30-year-old Navy journalist, Jeremy Allen is accused of hitting the couple’s 22-month-old son with a wooden spoon on Feb. 13, leaving bruises on his buttocks and back.
On Feb. 14, the night that Sarah Allen is accused of shaking the boy, Jeremey Allen was away on business in New Hampshire.
According to court documents, the bruises on the boy’s backside were discovered and photographed during the autopsy.
Jeremy Allen was charged with assault, a crime punishable by up to five years in prison. Sarah Allen faces a more series charge of manslaughter, which is punishable by up to 40 years in prison.
Sarah Allen’s lawyer, Verne Paradie, argued that one of the problems with holding a joint trial is that the jurors would see the photographs of the bruises and they would want to punish both parents for them.
Gorman stated in her ruling that the photographs may still be allowed as evidence at Sarah Allen’s trial. But that can’t be decided until the trial is under way.
“Given the compelling nature of the photographs, and the charge Ms. Allen faces, the court is concerned that a cautioning instruction – telling the jury not to consider the photos as evidence against Sarah Allen – would be an insufficient remedy,” the judge wrote.
The state now has 21 days to decide which trial it wants to hold first. It is likely that both will be held in the late spring or early summer.
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