Bryan Kohberger’s newly appointed attorney is renewing his challenge to Idaho prosecutors as he seeks to remove the judge who branded his client a “faceless coward” from the post-conviction case.
Greg Rauch, who was appointed to represent Kohberger, says Latah County prosecutors have merely “regurgitated” legal standards instead of responding to the concerns outlined in his motion seeking Judge Steven Hippler’s disqualification.
After Kohberger pleaded guilty last year, Hippler described the 31-year-old as having “slithered” into the victims’ home and called the crime one committed by “the worst of the worst.”
Rauch said the central issue is “how [Hippler’s] statements about counsel’s preparation and [Kohberger’s] capacity for truthfulness bear on the disputes it may now decide, in combination with the myriad of other statements made.”
While discussing Kohberger’s decision not to make an allocution or explain his actions, Hippler also questioned whether the defendant was capable of telling the truth.
“Even if I could force him to speak, which legally I cannot, how could anyone ever be assured that what he speaks is the truth?” Hippler asked during sentencing. “Do we really believe, after all of this, he is capable of speaking the truth, or of giving up something of himself to help the very people whose lives he destroyed? Rather, I suspect the so-called reason would be dished out in enticing self-serving and aggrandizing untruthful bits, leaving people wanting more information, more insight, and thus enhancing even further the power he seeks to hold.”
Rauch acknowledged that judges can deny defense requests, condemn horrific crimes and later oversee post-conviction proceedings.
“The question is not whether someone might criticize the Court, but whether an informed, reasonable observer could question its impartiality in light of this connected record,” he wrote.
Rauch’s argument goes beyond Hippler’s sentencing remarks. He also points to the judge’s criticism of Kohberger’s former defense team in a June scheduling order, issued just days before Kohberger stunned the country by pleading guilty to avoid a possible death sentence.
“This motion does not rest upon one adverse ruling, one harsh statement, or the mere fact that the judge who presided over Bryan Kohberger’s criminal case has been assigned to his post-conviction proceeding,” Rauch wrote in his original 22-page motion filed Aug. 27. “It rests upon the extraordinary convergence of all of them.”
Hippler had denied a request from Kohberger’s former attorney, Anne Taylor, for additional time. In a June 26 order, he called her discovery concerns “ultimately empty” and suggested she was attempting to delay the trial.
Six days later, during a change-of-plea hearing, Hippler asked Taylor, “Have you been able to do all the discovery you feel necessary?”
“Yes, Your Honor,” she replied.
In a response filed earlier this month, prosecutors argued that Kohberger had not demonstrated that Hippler “is biased.”
Latah County Prosecuting Attorney Bill Thompson, who announced his retirement earlier this week, and Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Keith Scholl said Hippler’s comments about Kohberger after he admitted killing four students were neither unusual nor improper.
“In our case, the sentencing remarks are not enough to show bias, and the required showing of perceived bias cannot be tied to this Court’s capacity to fairly adjudicate any [post-conviction relief] claims alleged in this case but rather puts this Court in the best position to adjudicate them as the legislature and the Idaho Supreme Court’s rules intend,” they wrote.
Rauch also maintained that Hippler could choose to recuse himself voluntarily to eliminate any appearance of partiality.
In his latest 12-page filing, Rauch accused prosecutors of attributing concessions to Kohberger that he never made, misrepresenting the arguments in the original motion and ignoring several of the points it raised.
“The State’s Response does not resolve this motion by repeating the ordinary rule, supplying concessions Petitioner never made, or calling the disputed statements routine,” Rauch wrote.
Kohberger is seeking to withdraw his guilty plea in the University of Idaho student killings, which claimed the lives of Madison Mogen, 21, Kaylee Goncalves, 21, Xana Kernodle, 20, and Ethan Chapin, 20, in November 2022.
The former criminology Ph.D. student initially filed a handwritten petition for post-conviction relief in July.
“The State’s Response does not resolve this motion by repeating the ordinary rule, supplying concessions Petitioner never made, or calling the disputed statements routine,” Rauch wrote.
“A request for an impartial adjudicator is certainly not a request for a sympathetic one,” he wrote. “Reassignment would change the judge, not the evidence or the governing law.”
A hearing on the matter was supposed to take place Thursday, before Hippler abruptly canceled it and said it would be rescheduled later.