ROCKLAND, Maine — A judge has thrown out charges against a 29-year-old man accused of escaping from a Maine State Prison work detail.
The man’s wife, however, pleaded guilty Monday to aiding in the alleged escape and will only face a fine if she adheres to terms of a sentence agreement reached with the state.
Justice Jeffrey Hjelm granted on March 8 a motion to dismiss the indictment filed against Shawn A. Benner, citing unnecessary delays brought on by the prosecution.
Benner had been charged with escape after the state argued he left a pre-release work detail in Rockland on Oct. 9, 2010. Benner and his wife, Amanda Benner, 24, of Augusta, were stopped at gunpoint later that day in Waldoboro by Waldoboro police.
Shawn Benner had been serving a sentence at the Maine State Prison for robbery, burglary, aggravated assault and criminal threatening with a dangerous weapon, according to court records.
He was indicted in January 2011, and the case eventually was set for trial during the May and June trial term in Knox County Superior Court. During that term, the district attorney’s office provided new evidence to the defense that consisted of rules and regulations for prisoners on work release programs.
The defense argued that the evidence should have been provided earlier and Justice Hjelm agreed and excluded that material from being used at trial. In response to that loss of evidence, the state dismissed the case.
Shawn Benner completed his sentence in June 2011.
The district attorney’s office presented the case again to the grand jury and obtained an indictment in July 2011 for escape.
Benner’s attorney Jeremy Pratt filed the motion to dismiss the indictment.
“The court is ultimately persuaded that there has been unnecessary delay in bringing the defendant to trial and that this actionable delay is attributable to problems affecting the state’s prosecution of the defendant,” Justice Hjelm ruled.
The judge also stated that the state fell short of its duties owed to the defendant. Justice Hjelm barred the state from bringing the charge a third time.
Amanda Benner pleaded guilty Monday to aiding escape but under terms of the deferred disposition with the district attorney’s office, that charge will be dropped and she will be convicted of the lesser charge of hindering apprehension if she refrains from further criminal conduct for a year. She will be fined $250 if she adheres to the agreement through March 2013.
“state fell short of its duties owed to the defendant”….Wish the judge was as concerned for “We the people”.
Sort of ironic that you quote the constitution in your complaint about the decision.
blame the prosecutor. There are rules and he knew what they were and he screwed up. The judge, by law, had no choice but to dismiss the case.
I say prosecuters shouldn’t have the right to dismiss charges they’ve brought before the court. Move forward with the case and lose like a defense attorney would have to. Eventually we’d see who good prosecuting attorneys are and vote them in.
It would be prosecutorial misconduct to go ahead with a case for which there is not enough evidence to get a conviction.
You are right, thanks for the correction.
“Shawn Benner had been serving a sentence at the Maine State Prison for robbery, burglary, aggravated assault and criminal threatening with a dangerous weapon, according to court records.”
What was he doing in a work release program in the first place?
He was preparing to escape:)
He was in jail for those charges, YES. WHY??? CAUSE HIS 3 YEAR OLD DAUGHTER WAS BEING ABUSED!!!! See when your child is being mentally, sexually and psychically abuse… and the police and state DO NOTHING about it!… What would you do? huh? answer that?? When you 3 year old has black eyes, bruised cheeks, bruises on her leg the size of a mans fist and the police “who were called to a public place cause it WAS seen!” and nothing is done! You going to sit back and let your little girl endure all that? People should problem know what happened and not just judge by charges. Let hope your never in this kind of mess!
Odd that one can basically be found not guilty for escaping but the one who helped him escape can… Funny old world.
He wasn’t by any means found “not guilty”. He was never tried because the people took too long. He’s got rights, and knowing his rights, they took too long to charge him. Thankfully we all have those rights, even the guilty, but if they violate his rights, they can violate anyone else’s.
DON’T BE SURPRISED? Remember: Our laws, our lawyers, and our courts and judges are in the business of protecting the rights of crimminals. END OF STORY.
Our laws and our courts and judges are in the business of protecting all our rights. The states lawyers were apparently inept on their part leading to the dismisal. They had what would appear to even the slowest among us, a slam dunk case. They blew it because they were unable or just too lazy to follow the laws they are supposed to uphold. It’s not rocket science.
And add to that that Justice Hjelm is no shrinking violet; he is a brilliant, thorough judge. If the case was dismissed, you can bet that there were good grounds. Look to the DA’s office– your elected officials and their agents– for the reasons for the dismissal, as well as the excellent lawyering by the defense lawyer, rather than ignorantly BLAMING judges and the defense lawyer.
We have rules for a reason. Not ALL people charged with a crime are guilty. This guy probably was . Judge rules fair in his choice get over it. Laws to protect the innocent sometimes protect guilty. It is not a perfect world . Its should not be about emotions it should be about facts. Even in cases when the jury believes a witness lie about some facts more often than not the person still gets convicted.
No, it’s not the “end of story.” I’m sure you would feel differently if you were the defendant.
This is about protecting everyone’s right to a speedy trial. The state failed to provide one, and the court ruled accordingly.
Who is kidding WHOM here? What SHOULD BE common knowledge to a criminal defense attorney (rules and regulations for prisoners on work release programs) should never be enough reason to dispose of a case of escape.
That’s more like a reason to disbar the attorney for not knowing his trade, IMHO!
The Maine statutes should be common knowledge to defense and prosecution alike. Rules and regulations for the department of corrections various programs aren’t quite the same. Anyway, there’s no excuse for the delay in introducing it as evidence. They would have to claim something like the department of corrections wouldn’t give them a copy of the rules when they asked. The judge would throw the case out even faster if he heard something like that.
I’m not surprised. Crazy….
This guy was probably guilty as a sin. The judge made the right choice in this case. Sometimes prosecutors are unethical twist facts. Hide evidence or out right lie. I decent judge will see threw that and dismiss a case. I know for a fact innocent people get charged and convicted of crimes (maybe not a lot we will never know the real numbers). Its a whole lot easier to take a plea bargin sometimes if it dose not involve jail time than to fight hire ,a lawyer . For a case you might lose . We need to hold DAs to a higher standard. In the Assistant DA mislead either it was an out right lie or he did not know the facts witch I dought . I called him on it in front of the judge. The judge told him to get his facts strait before he comes back in his court room . DAs are exempt from being charge with perjury . In my case I was innocent. But it is still on my record as a dismissal . I am not saying it happens all the time. I am just saying we have rules for a reason.
Justice Hjelm is one of the best judges sitting on the Superior Court in Maine and didn’t reach this decision lightly. The prosecution tried to game the system by dismissing a complaint and then re-indicting.
Yes I agree completely with what you said. Man might have been guilty but Someone needs to keep them in check .
They likely would have won a conviction without the late-arriving evidence, but took the risk of dismissing and re-indicting to add a belt to their suspenders.
We can only hope the prosecutor in this case has not been posting at the BDN, eh?
Federal prosecutor admitted posting as ‘Mencken1951’ after being confronted, Jim Letten says
Friday, March 16, 2012
http://www.nola.com/crime/index.ssf/2012/03/federal_prosecutor_admits_post.html
What the… the guy clearly escaped. not offering the published rules “early” up lets him get away with it? What ever happend to ignorance of the law is no excuse? Give me a break.
TOO FUNNY! This is Amanda Benner and the media… love how they mix everything all up! My husband was in jail for PROTECTING his child that was being abused in many different ways! Not to mention he had 6 months left and we were NOT trying to escape. His boss said we could talk and let him leave… then we were held at gun point. Then I plead out but NOT to aiding escape! Not that that is anyone’s business. The ONLY reason I did not fight it was cause the DA has done nothing but harass me. DA didn’t do their job and could not get my husband and screw him like they always have so they used me to get to him. When the DA runs out of the court room saying ” I want Shawn, we don’t even want to prosecute Amanda, tell him to take 30 days” Plus used me several other times to use against him! JUSTICE!? I THINK NOT!!! WHAT A JOKE!!!