Benzie County Prosecutor John Daugherty's misguided effort to gag attorneys who represent the defendant in a Michigan State Police sergeant's slaying failed last week, and rightly so.
A district judge ruled Daugherty chose the wrong forum to gripe about accused murderer Joni Holbrook's defense team, and Daugherty's threadbare complaint appeared rooted more in frustration over his inability to control information in a big-deal murder case than it did in fact.
Daugherty said he feared Holbrook lawyer Jesse Williams' comments to the media could hinder her right to a fair trial, and pose difficulties in seating a jury.
Holbrook's lawyers argued Daugherty's gag order improperly would strip Holbrook and her lawyers of their free speech rights.
District Judge Nancy Kida ruled Daugherty's concerns about Williams needed to be aired elsewhere and that gagging attorneys wasn't an appropriate response.
It's clear Daugherty is feeling pressure as he tries to build a case against Holbrook, who phoned authorities early Aug. 10 and said she fatally shot her husband, State Police Sgt. Melvin Holbrook, of the Traverse City post, in their Beulah-area home.
She admitted pulling the trigger, but there may be a host of other legal issues to consider, including Joni Holbrook's mental state and whether she's competent to stand trial, as well as the potential for some type of battered-spouse defense -- neighbors told the Record-Eagle they saw evidence of domestic abuse -- though it appears she wasn't in immediate peril because Holbrook allegedly shot her husband as he slept.
This likely won't be an open-and-shut matter. It could be a complicated prosecution, accented by the fact that it's not only attracted much public attention, it's also Daugherty's first murder case as Benzie prosecutor.
There's a lot riding on the Holbrook case, for Daugherty, for Benzie County taxpayers and for the criminal justice system.
Daugherty, a longtime local attorney, stepped up last year and agreed to run for the post, a move that effectively ended former Prosecutor Tony Cicchelli's reign of error.
The bungling, ethically challenged Cicchelli was an embarrassment to the county, state and perhaps universe, and Daugherty's decision effectively convinced Cicchelli to return to the private sector.
Daugherty's subsequent election was welcome news, and gave Benzie residents and others hope for competent leadership in the prosecutor's office.
Now it's trial by fire for the new prosecutor, who seems irked about media interest in the slaying of a state police sergeant. He's making rookie mistakes -- the gag order effort, and demanding some media outlets submit written questions to him, for starters -- but it's not too late to worry instead about the big picture: the pursuit of justice in the Holbrook homicide.
It's a case that presents challenges, as well as opportunities to set a professional tone for Daugherty's tenure.
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