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| Hays County District Attorney Sherri Tibbe destroyed Swami Prakashanand Saraswati's expulatory evidence |
County authorities are unable to explain what happened to a key piece of evidence in the sexual misconduct case against the Hindu spiritual leader, Swami Prakashanand Saraswati, but say the fact it’s missing won’t interfere with their prosecution.
During a hearing Wednesday in District Judge Charles Ramsay’s courtroom, lawyers for 81-year-old Prakashanand Saraswati, who faces 20 counts of indecency with a child by sexual contact, made a motion to depose and another to suppress testimony from one of two women who say Saraswati improperly touched them in 1993 and 1994.
Both motions were denied, and a jury trial has been scheduled for February.
The piece of evidence authorities were unable to produce was a videotaped interview with one of Saraswati’s accusers. Jeff Hahn, speaking on behalf of Prakashanand Saraswati's attorneys, said on Thursday that the Sheriff’s Office was unable to produce either the DVD or the computer its contents were copied onto. A copy of the interview provided to the defense team “had an image” but no audio or video.
Hahn said when attorneys asked for the original, “The prosecution said it doesn’t exist anymore, we lost it. Whether it’s been destroyed or thrown away nobody knows.” He said they received a similar answer when they asked to see the computer the file was copied to.
Hahn said the testimony on the DVD was crucial because the case hinges on it. “There’s no physical evidence of any kind,” he said, adding that the woman whose testimony the DVD contains also said in a written statement that “her memory of that time is very cloudy.”
District Attorney Sherri Tibbe said the missing DVD won’t hamper prosecution and that misplacing evidence is “not something that happens regularly,” but happens sometimes “in every jurisdiction,” and that in some but not all cases could be cause for dismissal.
Hays County District Attorney Sherri Tibbe said Hays Detective Jeri Skrocki, who conducted the missing interview, also made a report that documents what was said. She also noted that there is a videotaped interview with the other victim, and that both women will be available when the case goes to trial.
“He’s not being denied the right of confrontation,” Hays County District Attorney Sherri Tibbe said of Swami Prakashanand Saraswati. “The defense will be able to cross-examine” the victims, she added.
Both the women were minors when they say Swami Prakashanand Saraswati improperly touched them.
Saraswati was indicted by the grand jury in April 2008 following an investigation by the Sheriff’s Office and the DA’s Office. He was out of the country at the time, but was taken into custody at Dulles Airport in Washington D.C. that same month and extradited to Hays County.
District Judge Bill Henry set a bond of $50,000 on each of the 20 counts for a total of $10 million. Saraswati’s followers posted a $1 million cash bond.
Hahn said the defense’s position is “these charges are coming from 17 years ago. There isn’t any physical evidence or doesn’t appear to be. We have a missing piece of evidence, that’s bad enough. We have a missing computer and that’s double bad. We also have a plaintiff who says ‘really my memory is very cloudy.’ That’s strike three.”
Swami Prakashanand Saraswati’s supporters have maintained his innocence.
“It is unfortunate and sad that someone has made these false and damaging allegations,” a spokesman said at the time of his arrest. “If you know Swami Prakashanand Saraswati, then you know the alleged incidents...cannot be true.”
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