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LEFT: The trailer Joe Tash and Richard Raugust shared where Joe was murdered. RIGHT: Rory Ross’ AMC Eagle. COURTESY PHOTOS
asking this court to ignore the plethora of evidence that, at a minimum, casts significant doubt about [Raugust’s] con- viction – if not outright shows [Raugust] is innocent – because the State’s highly credible star witness, Ross, testified that [Raugust] killed Tash. On the other hand, however, the State is asking this Court to ignore Ross’ repeated confessions and refusal to answer any questions regard- ing his involvement in the Tash murder, because Ross is not credible. Apparently the State had no issues with Ross’ credi- bility when it called Ross to testify against [Raugust] at trial, argued to the jury that Ross should be believed, and now con- tinues to defend [Raugust’s] conviction based on Ross’ testimony. The state can- not have it both ways – either Ross lacks credibility and his trial testimony is similarly worthy of significant distrust (a position supported by the entirety of evidence presented to this Court), or Ross is credible and his repeated confessions must be given weight. Either way sup- ports [Raugust’s] innocence.”
Zimmerman also says Deputy Abbey’s testimony lacks credibility, that it’s a departure from his previous account of seeing the vehicles, and that at the time of Raugust’s trial he had been disciplined by a previous law enforcement agency in Billings, resulting in his firing. Not only does his testimony at the Raugust trial differ from his testimony at the eviden- tiary hearing last year, Zimmerman said, but his frustrations with the Billings Police Department gives him a motive to “exactrevenge”onotherlawenforcement agencies, the prosecutor argued.
“This Court should, in light of all of the evidence introduced at the trial, find that Abbey lacks credibility. Abbey’s firing by the City of Billings provides a motive for him to testify falsely at the hearing on this matter. That is, to exact revenge against law enforcement agencies,” Zim- merman wrote. “Had he seen someone get out of the vehicle the evidence could
perhaps be characterized as critical. As it stands now the new evidence leads to speculation at best and nothing else.”
Again, Schandelson accuses the state of “trying to have it both ways,” present- ing Abbey as credible at trial – which occurred after his firing from the Bill- ings agency – and incredible in Raugust’s post-trial proceedings.
The group has also obtained an expert witness who disputes the accuracy of “ear-witness” testimony from Tash’s neighbors placing Raugust at the crime scene.
The ear-witness testimony came from a family who lived in a neighboring trailer to Tash’s, and who testified that they heard the voices of Raugust, Tash and Ross at the crime scene, “whooping and hollering into the night.”
Dan Yarmey, an expert in ear-witness identification, reviewed evidence from the Montana Innocence Project and urged the court to view the family’s tes- timony that they heard Raugust’s voice among a group of people with “extreme caution” because ear-witness testimony is often inaccurate.
The defense team also asserts that several witnesses establish a connection between Scarborough and Ross on the morning of the murder, including Lori and Doug Cooper, Scarborough’s neigh- bors who saw Ross’ AMC Eagle pull up to Scarborough’s house with its headlights off between 5 a.m. and 5:15 a.m. – before the 9-1-1 call to report the murder.
Doug Cooper, a volunteer firefighter, says he recalls his wife commenting, “Isn’t it stupid that Rory Ross doesn’t have his headlights on,” he said, and a short while later, at 5:42 a.m., he received a page to respond to a fire in the Swamp Creek area.
“The reason I can recall the incidents of that morning in such detail is because it was the same day that we learned of a murder in the Swamp Creek area. See- ing a car without headlights, receiving a
fire page and then learning of a murder at the scene of the fire seemed bizarre. The events of that morning have stayed with me ever since,” Cooper stated in an affidavit.
One of Raugust’s strongest supporters has become something of a wallflower in the case, but the behind-the-scenes leg- work of Mary Webster, Raugust’s sister, helped get the ball rolling in a case the inmate was otherwise helpless to pursue.
“I was his legs and his means to accom- plish these goals,” Webster, an attorney in California, said. “I’ve never had a doubt in my mind that Richard is innocent, and the thing that’s really struck me is that everyone touched by this case believes in his innocence.”
Those people touched by the case includes Tudy Cox, the court recorder at Raugust’s trial, who attended last year’s evidentiary hearing in a sign of support for Raugust.
Ken Bonner, the ranch hand with whom Raugust met Tash more than 30 years ago, remembers when a detective
called him 18 years ago to tell him about Tash’s death and Raugust’s arrest.
“I told him, ‘You’ve got the wrong man,’” he said in a recent phone inter- view from his home in Mount Shasta. “I know the boys, I’ve known them their whole lives and there is no way that Rich- ard killed Joe. He couldn’t kill Joe, there is no way. I still can’t believe this, it just gets me so mad.”
Raugust gave up being mad a long time ago, leveling out his thoughts on injustice by writing poetry and trying to publish a book, “Fishers of Trout and Men,” an artistic effort to reach veterans and curb suicide rates through tales of trout fishing.
And while his indignation has ebbed, his faith in his innocence and his resolve to be free has not, telling a departing stranger, “I’ll see you on the streams.”
“The evidence is overwhelming. I’ve had a 12th-grade education and some self-learning, but even an eighth-grader can figure this out,” Raugust said. “I’m hopeful.”
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Richard Raugust, pictured at the Montana State Prison in Deer Lodge. GREG LINDSTROM | FLATHEAD BEACON
JULY 29, 2015 // FLATHEADBEACON.COM
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