Standard-Examiner: Emotions of Judge Questioned in Stewart Case

Grade school county attorney tactics in the Matthew Stewart civil property forfeiture case?

In the interest of keeping WCF readers fully abreast of all developments surrounding the Matthew Stewart Shootemup Case, we'll highlight this morning's Standard-Examiner story, which amounts to a followup to a couple of Northern Utah media stories which we featured on 7/21/12, involving the related civil forfeiture action, wherein Weber County lawyers are attempting to seize Mr. Stewart's residential property:

• Emotions of judge questioned in Stewart case

The S-E's Mr. Gurrister reports that Weber County lawyers are apparently attempting to turn the tables on civil defense lawyer Emily Swenson, who's attempting to disqualify 2d District Court Judge Decaria from the cased, claiming the judge’s emotional reaction to Officer Francom’s death was evidence of bias.

In a bizarre plot twist, Mr. Gurrister reports this:

...in his motion filed Tuesday, Weber County Attorney Dee Smith wrote that Swenson was more emotional at that meeting than DeCaria was.

Smith’s motion suggests that, following Swenson’s line of reasoning, she should be disqualified from the case.

 Are Weber County lawyers seriously contending that Ms. Swenson has an emotional bias which would operate to Stewart's detriment in this matter?

This strikes us as a grade-school litigation tactic, merely designed to confuse the issues, folks.

So what do our Gentle Readers have to say about this?