http://fox13now.com/2014/08/25/sex-abuse-sentencing-for-martin-macneill-delayed/
PROVO — Sentencing for Dr. Martin MacNeill, convicted of forcible sex abuse, has been delayed.
Both prosecutors and defense attorneys agreed to the delay on Monday. Prosecutors requested time to respond to a new defense motion to toss the case.
Alexis Somers, the victim in the case, left the courthouse frustrated.
“We just want to move on and we want him to face justice,” she told FOX 13 as she walked out with her aunt, Linda Cluff.
Somers accused MacNeill of groping her back in 2007, shortly after the death of her mother. Defense attorney Randy Spencer claimed that a tape-recorded interview that police did with her was lost, and a police report summarizing that interview was handed over far too late.
“That made it impossible for us to use Alexis’ own statements to cast reasonable doubt which i believe was abundant during the case,” he said.
Spencer has asked for the entire sex abuse case to be dismissed.
“I don’t believe we can have a new trial that would guarantee my client a fundamental fairness in the system when the police department has lost the most critical piece of information for a defendant who has been charged with a he said-she said type of case, that being the recorded statement of the alleged victim,” he told FOX 13.
Utah County prosecutors left the courthouse declining to comment.
MacNeill is also awaiting sentencing in the 2007 murder of his wife, Michele. Prosecutors contend he drugged and drowned her inside their Pleasant Grove home, so he could carry on an affair with another woman.
FOX 13 typically does not name sex abuse victims, but after her father was convicted she chose to speak publicly about it.
“I definitely want closure and I know there’s a lot of other people out there who have been victimized by my father who would like to see him held accountable and get some of that closure as well,” Somers said.
