Macomb County prosecutor asks US Supreme Court to allow sex abuse conviction

The Macomb County prosecutor is asking the U.S. Supreme Court to weigh in on a case in which a convicted man is to be retried after the courtroom was closed during testimony by a teenage sexual assault victim.

If the nation's highest court doesn't take up the request, Anthony Veach, who was convicted of assaulting the teen, will receive a new trial, according to the Prosecutor's Office.

The office filed a 38-page petition with the U.S. Supreme Court on Oct. 26 regarding the case against Veach, who was convicted in 2017.

"Our goal is to uphold the convictions for these crimes," Prosecutor Peter Lucido said in a release Wednesday. "We seek a resolution that respects the law while safeguarding the well-being of those who have endured unimaginable trauma."

Veach was convicted by a jury of seven counts of first-degree criminal sexual conduct and two counts of second-degree criminal sexual conduct in incidents involving a teenage victim. Circuit Judge Joseph Toia sentenced him to 20 to 60 years in prison for each of the first-degree convictions and 10 to 15 years in prison for each of the second-degree convictions.

Why the courtrooms were closed

Veach appealed and the Michigan Court of Appeals affirmed his conviction in a 2019 opinion.

In July of this year, the Michigan Supreme Court reversed the appellate court's decision and remanded the case to the Circuit Court for a new trial, saying the appellate court erred by holding that Veach's right to a public trial was not violated.

The Prosecutor's Office states Veach was charged in three different cases in three different communities in which he is accused of assaulting the victim.

Three different district courtrooms closed the court for the victim's testimony during three different preliminary exams, per the prosecution's request because of the sensitive nature of the testimony and difficulty the victim was having in recounting the events in court. She was able to testify with a support person at her side to provide clear and cogent answers, and Veach's counsel did not object to the measures, the Prosecutor's Office petition says.

The reasons weren't good enough, Michigan Supreme Court found

The cases were consolidated at the circuit court, and prosecutors again moved to close the courtroom for her testimony and allow a victim advocate be present for support. The defense stipulated to the advocate's presence, according to the Michigan Supreme Court opinion, but objected to courtroom closure.

The courtroom was closed for the victim's testimony. The trial court "did not consider any reasonable alternatives to closure on the record," the Michigan Supreme Court said, and the trial court's findings of "an overriding interest were inadequate to support closure."

Justice Brian Zahra dissented, writing that without the trial court's action, he believed there would have "been a serious risk that the victim could not effectively recount her story to the jury or would have been unable to do so, in part or whole."

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'Anxiety forced upon the victim' by testifying

"Although one can hope that the victim has the strength and willingness to go through another trial, there is a very real possibility that now, seven years after the events at issue occurred, the victim will not want to recount on a courtroom witness stand, yet again, the abuse that she suffered, forcing her to relive the trauma," Zahra wrote.

"No doubt many victims in her place would decline that opportunity, knowing very well that one purported error, dissected with the benefit of hindsight from an ivory appellate tower, could result in reversal and yet another retrial. If the victim nonetheless proceeds, the trial court would have the discretion, and very well could, order the same courtroom closure that the majority order relies on to reverse the instant convictions. The ultimate result might be the same. The anxiety forced upon the victim for testifying to her assailant's abuse now a fifth time, after three preliminary examinations and a trial, cannot be undone."

In its petition to the nation's highest court, the Prosecutor's Office states the question presented is: "Does the Sixth Amendment right to a public trial require subjecting the child rape victim to an automatic retrial based on a technicality when there are ample and obvious reasons in the record justifying the closure during her testimony, even if the trial court does not expressly state those reasons on the record?

"The decision below wrongly reverses the convictions of an otherwise fundamentally fair trial when the only error is the failure of the trial court to articulate its reasoning for the courtroom closure," according to the petition.

The Prosecutor's Office, in its petition, writes that the states are split on the proper remedy for this type of error where a trial court fails to articulate its reasons for a closure. "Some ignore the record and immediately grant a new trial while others remand for trial court articulation," the office said.

Veach, 43, is being held in the Macomb County Jail without bond, according to Sheriff's Office records.

Veach's response is due by Nov. 29.

Steven Helton with the State Appellate Defender Office in Detroit, who was listed in a proof of service document filed with the high court, said in an email Monday: "The right to a public trial is crucial to ensuring that people accused of crimes receive fair trials and that the public can have confidence in the outcome of those trials. SADO will continue to fight against the government's efforts to diminish and undermine the protections the right to a public trial affords, which the United States Supreme Court has consistently held are guaranteed by the Sixth Amendment and the framers of our state's constitution specifically sought to enshrine when they ratified Article 1, § 20 of Michigan's Constitution in 1963."

Contact Christina Hall: chall@freepress.com. Follow her on X, formerly Twitter: @challreporter.

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This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Macomb prosecutor asks US Supreme Court to allow sex crime conviction