Maurice Johnson, convicted in the 1999 Valentine's Day triple slaying in Cleveland, Tenn., attends a post-conviction relief hearing on Friday. Special Judge Don Ash is expected to make a ruling in two to three weeks regarding a request by Johnson's attorney to recuse the staff of the 10th Judicial District Attorney's Office from future proceedings due to allegations of conflicts of interest and an appearance of impropriety.CLEVELAND, Tenn. -- The final post-conviction relief hearing has been set for Maurice Johnson, the only person convicted in a 1999 Valentine's Day triple slaying here.
The hearing, which will be held March 9-10 in the courtroom of Judge Rebecca Stern in Hamilton County, was moved from Bradley County due to space and scheduling conflicts, said Steve Crump, district attorney in the 10th Judicial District.
"No courtrooms were available in Bradley County is why we were told it was moved to Hamilton," Crump said in a text message.
Special Judge Don Ash, who was assigned to the case earlier this year, will preside, Crump said.
In August, Ash ruled to deny a motion made by Robert Kurtz, Johnson's attorney, to recuse the entire 10th District Attorney General's Office from the case due to conflicts of interest.
However, Ash did grant that two prosecutors previously associated with the case, Assistant Attorney General Paul Rush and former Assistant Attorney General Richard Fisher, should be excluded from the case going forward.
The focus of Kurtz's motion revolved around the actions of the two prosecutors in what he described as a tangle of cases involving the slayings of O.J. Blair, Cayci Higgins and Dawn Rogers, who were found shot execution-style in a Cleveland apartment after a fight between Johnson and Blair.
Johnson was initially charged in the homicides with Michael "Money" Younger and Twanna "Tart" Blair. Johnson was found guilty in August 2009 of three counts of first-degree murder and especially aggravated robbery. He is serving a life sentence without parole.
Charges against Blair were dismissed.
Younger, who went to trial in 2009, was granted a mistrial in 2010 by Criminal Court Judge Amy Reedy after Rush asked a question he specifically was instructed not to ask.
Steve Bebb, who served as district attorney at the time, subsequently dropped charges against Younger, alleging that Reedy and Detective Duff Brumley had conducted improper contact as evidenced by more than 200 phone calls while the case was pending.
The two prosecutors "both have had their conduct questioned" by Reedy and by Special Judge Jon Blackwood, who presided over a case in which Younger was indicted again this spring on charges related to the killings. The new case against Younger was dropped by Crump in October.
Ash also noted concerns with Bebb's behavior, citing a legislative investigation of Bebb due to actions by the DA's Office in the cases of Blair, Younger and Johnson.
"Given the seriousness of the allegations" against the trio, the desire by the two prosecutors to vindicate their reputations -- as well as Bebb's -- "may very well be in direct contradiction to their duties as prosecutors," Ash said in the ruling.
Rush had argued that the motion for recusal has no basis in Johnson's case, stating that at no point during his trial were there any allegations of misconduct by any judge or board.
Paul Leach is based in Cleveland. Contact him at paul.leach.press@gmail.com.