LAKEPORT — A judge Tuesday denied a defense motion to exclude evidence based on an improper arrest in the attempted murder case against Thomas Dudney.
Judge Arthur Mann ruled that the Lake County Sheriff”s Office established probable cause before calling for Dudney”s arrest for his alleged role in the torture and shooting of Ronald Greiner on Oct. 20, 2009.
Dudney and another man, Joshua Wandrey, are charged with 11 offenses including premeditated attempted murder, first-degree battery, assault with a firearm and torture in connection with the Oct. 20, 2009 incident.
Detective John Drewrey of the LSCO testified Tuesday that Greiner told several investigators the day of the attack that two men broke into his Lakeport home, shot him and beat him with an unidentified object.
Drewrey testified that Greiner described one of his two attackers to investigators as being a white male who lived in Sonoma County off of Marlow Road in Santa Rosa and went by a moniker.
Drewrey said investigators had a difficult time interpreting Greiner”s pronunciation of the moniker due to his physical condition after the attack but that investigators understood the attacker”s nickname to be KTron or KTom.
Drewrey told the court that on Oct. 20, 2009, about an hour after responding to the scene, he called the Sonoma County Sheriff”s Department and spoke to Detective Joseph Dulworth, who had no knowledge of a man under either alias but offered to ask other officers about information on a man known as KTron or KTom.
Dulworth called Drewrey a short time later and said other officers had told him about a man “with a violent history” known as KTom, who lived in Sonoma County and belonged to the motorcycle game The Misfits, according to Drewrey”s testimony.
Drewrey said Sonoma County investigators had identified Dudney as the man known by the alias KTom.
Drewrey testified that he told Dulworth during that phone conversation that Dudney was “arrest-able.” Authorities in Sonoma County stopped Dudney in a vehicle and arrested him on Oct. 20, 2009.
Doug Rhoades, Dudney”s public defender, argued in his motion that authorities had not established the burden of proof to arrest Dudney without a proper warrant.
Drewrey also testified that Greiner did not identify Dudney by photograph until Oct. 27, 2009.
Drewrey said that when he interviewed Greiner in the hospital on Oct. 21, 2009, both of Greiner”s eyes were nearly swollen shut.
Drewrey said that on Oct. 27, 2009, he showed Greiner six photographs of men, one of which was Dudney.
Drewrey testified that Greiner identified the photograph of Dudney as the one depicting his attacker. Greiner did not identify Dudney by name, rather by the moniker KTron.
The defense motion also stipulated that some of the evidence investigators collected in the wake of Dudney”s arrest should be excluded.
Rhoades asked Judge Mann to suppress evidence collected from Dudney”s cell phone and all of the evidence collected from an ensuing search of Dudney”s home.
Judge Mann denied the suppression request on the grounds of inevitable discovery, making all of the evidence from the search of Dudney”s person and home admissible.
“Once the victim was able to see, he immediately identified the defendant,” Judge Mann said while making his ruling.
Dudney is next scheduled appear in court Oct. 13 at 8:15 a.m. for a trial readiness conference.
Contact Jeremy Walsh at jwalsh@record-bee.com or call him directly at 263-5636 ext. 37.
