On Tuesday, June 24, 2008, a hearing was held for a small claims suit Patrick Thompson has filed against Urbana attorney Harvey Welch to recuperate approximately $3,000 in legal fees. Thompson is arguing the case pro se and Welch is being represented by Urbana attorney David Rumley. A hearing was set for July 30, 2 p.m. in courtroom D for additional evidence to be presented.

In 2006, Welch defended Thompson against charges of sexual abuse and home invasion. After his attorney called only one witness to testify for the defense, Thompson was found guilty. Within the next 30 days, attorneys Bob Kirchner and Ruth Wyman entered a motion for a new trial arguing ineffective assistance of counsel, which was granted by Judge Harry Clem. In a third trial that took place May 2008, Thompson was found not guilty.

In the small claims case, filed June 2007, Thompson has simply entered Judge Clem’s 2006 decision and asked that his legal fees be returned. Now that Thompson has recently been found not guilty, there is new evidence to submit. Judge Holly Clemons asked Thompson if he would like to reopen the case for additional evidence, to which he replied he would. Rumley objected, claiming that the criminal case was “immaterial” and had “absolutely no bearing” on the small claims case. Rumley had argued at the last hearing, before the recent trial acquitting Thompson, that it had not been proved whether with an effective attorney the outcome of the 2006 trial would have been any different. Rumley’s defense is now void—with two competent attorneys Thompson was found not guilty.

Judge Clemons overruled Rumley’s objection and said she is willing to consider the new evidence. This case is, she said, “a rather unusual situation.”

Despite the precedent this case could set, Mary Schenk, court reporter for the News-Gazette, was absent.

BD