Actor’s defense wants newly assigned judge removed from case

Less than two weeks after one Orange County judge removed himself from the double murder trial for Daniel Wozniak, defense attorneys are trying to disqualify another judge from hearing the case.

Wozniak is a community theater actor accused of killing two Costa Mesa college students in 2010 and dismembering one of them. His trial has been delayed repeatedly, though police say that Wozniak, 30, admitting to them that he shot 26-year-old Army veteran Sam Herr in order to steal $50,000 and then cut up the body to scatter in a park.

Wozniak also is accused of killing Herr’s friend Juri “Julie” Kibuishi, 23, and staging her body to look as if Herr had sexually assaulted her.

Wozniak’s public defender, Scott Sanders, filed papers Thursday arguing that newly assigned Judge John Conley should be removed from the case because of broader allegations that Sanders is making against Orange County law enforcement.

During hearings about Wozniak, Sanders has alleged that for years the county district attorney’s office and Sheriff’s Department have hid helpful evidence from death penalty defendants and illegally used jailhouse informants to try to elicit confessions.

Prosecutors have dismissed the claims as distractions that have nothing to do with Wozniak’s case.

Conley was a prosecutor in the district attorney’s office from 1972 to 2001, and Sanders said he is likely to be called as a witness if hearings about Sanders’ allegations are held.

Sanders said he expects to eventually ask that every Orange County Superior Court judge be recused from the Wozniak case.

In a hearing Friday, Conley said he would file a written response to Sanders’ concerns, triggering a process in which another judge would have to rule on whether he can continue presiding over the Wozniak matter.

Conley was assigned to the case last month after Judge James Stotler recused himself, citing concerns that he may have become biased against Sanders.

Stotler’s decision upset family members of Herr and Kibuishi.

At the time, Herr’s father, Steve, stormed out of Stotler’s courtroom, frustrated at the prospect of more waiting in a case that has gone on for almost five years without a jury being seated.

On Friday, Steve Herr was more restrained. “It’s just one more delay,” he said.