Dan Markel murder: Prosecutors ask judge to hold Charlie Adelson's parents in contempt
Prosecutors have asked a judge to hold in contempt of court the parents of Charlie Adelson, accused of masterminding the plot to kill FSU law professor Dan Markel, for refusing to participate in an interview with them.
In a petition filed Tuesday, Assistant State Attorney Georgia Cappleman wrote that Harvey and Donna Adelson were subpoenaed in August for an interview to be conducted Tuesday.
However, their attorney, Marissel Descalzo of Miami, informed the state in August and again in an email Monday that “she does not believe the immunity conferred by a trial subpoena extends to an interview and that, as such, her clients will assert the 5th Amendment during any interviews,” Cappleman wrote.
Cappleman noted in her motion that Harvey and Donna Adelson are listed as witnesses for both the prosecution and defense in the first-degree murder trial of Charlie Adelson, their son, which is set to begin later this month.
“It is the state’s position that these subpoenas, like all state subpoenas, confer use and derivative use immunity in accordance with (statutes),” Cappleman wrote. “The state has a right to know what, if anything, these witnesses will offer at trial.”
Court records show the state sent individual subpoenas to Harvey and Donna Adelson demanding that they appear before Cappleman at the FBI’s office in Miramar.
On Monday, Descalzo emailed Cappleman that she had not seen the defense witness list and that she has not discussed her clients’ testimony with Charlie Adelson’s lawyers.
“My clients will assert the 5th at any interview,” Descalzo said.
Cappleman responded later that day to officially cancel the interview.
“I do not think it will be necessary to convene tomorrow for the purposes of your clients invoking (the 5th) as I think your representation of their intentions are sufficient,” Cappleman wrote.
In her subsequent motion, Cappleman wrote that the Adelsons “refused to give testimony” as required by law.
“These actions support a finding of contempt of court,” the motion says.
On Wednesday, Leon Circuit Judge Stephen Everett, who was recently assigned the case, granted the state's request. He ordered Donna and Harvey Adelson or their lawyer to appear in court Monday, either in person or virtually, "and then and there show cause why they should not be adjudged guilty of contempt of this court and punished accordingly for failing to comply with the state's investigative subpoenas."
Charlie Adelson, a South Florida dentist, is accused of orchestrating the murder-for-hire plot that led to Markel’s execution-style shooting in 2014 at his Betton Hills home. The killing happened amid a bitter custody battle between Adelson’s sister, Wendi Adelson, and Markel, her ex-husband, over their two sons. Harvey and Donna Adelson have long denied any involvement in the murder.
The hit men, Sigredo Garcia and Luis Rivera, along with Katherine Magbanua, the mother of Garcia’s children who also dated Charlie Adelson, were all previously convicted on first-degree murder charges in the Markel case.
Contact Jeff Burlew at jburlew@tallahassee.com or 850-599-2180.
This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: Dan Markel murder: Prosecutors want Adelson parents held in contempt
