McIver Prosecutors Cautioned Not to Pursue 'Angle' Involving Judge
Fulton County Superior Court Chief Judge Robert McBurney told prosecutors in open court he had "independent information"' about a phone call his colleague, Judge Craig Schwall, had made to defendant Tex McIver, and that it "wasn't sinister."
"As the murder trial of Atlanta attorney Claud “Tex” McIver opened its 16th day of testimony last week, presiding Fulton County Superior Chief Judge Robert McBurney cautioned prosecutors about pursuing an “angle” involving a fellow judge.
McBurney’s warning came before the jury was brought in on April 10 and referenced previous testimony mentioning Judge Craig Schwall, who is Tex McIver’s longtime friend. McIver was a member of former Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue’s Judicial Nominating Commission that recommended Schwall in 2005 and is friends with Schwall’s ex-wife. McIver designated Anne Schwall as the successor executor of a new will he drew up after he fatally shot his wife, Diane, on Sept. 25, 2016.
The Schwalls’ second son, Austin, is McIver’s godson. He’s also a primary beneficiary of McIver’s will and is integral to prosecutors’ contention that Diane McIver penned a new will that would have made the child the major inheritor of her estate.
McBurney warned prosecutors there was one direction “I want to make sure isn’t where the state’s heading.” That angle, he said, was suggested by a news article based on testimony from Bill Crane, who ran media interference for McIver after he shot and killed his wife.
Crane testified April 9 that McIver received a call from Schwall on Dec. 19, 2016—24 hours before Atlanta police issued warrants for McIver’s arrest.
“This doesn’t have anything to do with the jury,” McBurney continued. “But I did not understand the state to be suggesting, arguing, or intimating in any way that Judge Schwall somehow tipped Mr. McIver off through the phone call that Mr. Crane described happening at Roasters (restaurant) to say, ‘Hey, this just in.’”..."
https://www.law.com/dailyreportonli...autioned-not-to-pursue-angle-involving-judge/
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