Judge moves bus-crash trial to Willmar

Though the people of Lyon County are "fair-minded," the judge wrote, it's "too much to ask" them to decide the case in which four children of the community died.

By PAM LOUWAGIE, Star Tribune

Last update: June 11, 2008 - 11:49 PM

Saying it's too much to expect a grieving Lyon County community to sit dispassionately on a jury against the woman accused in the fatal Cottonwood school bus crash, a judge agreed Wednesday to move her upcoming trial.

Olga Franco is now scheduled for a July 28 trial in Kandiyohi County, under an order issued by Judge David Peterson on Wednesday. The county's courthouse, in Willmar, is about 52 miles from Cottonwood.

Franco's attorneys had asked that her trial be moved from the Lyon County seat of Marshall, citing extensive media coverage and community discussion of the crash, which killed four students and injured many others.

In a respectfully worded, six-page memo, Peterson wrote that he found state and local media coverage of the crash to be fair and that most jurors can distinguish coverage from letters to the editor or blogs.

And while he praised Lyon County's residents, saying they are "good, hard-working, and fair-minded," he wrote that several factors required a change of venue, including community connections to the Feb. 19 crash through law enforcement, emergency and medical personnel, friends and family.

"Given the magnitude of this event, the number of people involved, and the close-knit community of Lyon County, it is likely that a substantial portion of the jury pool has had person-to-person conversations about this case," Peterson wrote. "The Court's experience in jury trials is that, while media accounts can readily be set aside by prospective jurors, accounts heard from friends or neighbors are not easily set aside."

The death of children "strikes at the very heart of any community" Peterson wrote, adding later: "In the end, it is simply too much to ask a community to grieve for its children and then a few months later sit with dispassionate judgment on the very case giving rise to that grief."

Peterson cited the Kandiyohi courthouse's security and said it is "both far enough away to provide the detachment necessary and yet close enough for a convenient day trip to attend the trial."

Pamela Louwagie • 612-673-7102

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