Summit County prosecutors will continue to prosecute Kouri Richins’ case after her previous defense team attempted to disqualify the district attorney’s office from the case.
Third District Court Judge Richard Mrazik this week rejected the prosecutors’ motion to disqualify, saying there was no credible evidence that local attorneys and prison staff violated the rights of the Kamas mother of three.
“The disqualification of a lawyer is not necessary to maintain the fairness of these adversarial proceedings,” Mrazik ruled, adding that the request was made without any credible basis.
Kouri appeared in court on Thursday afternoon. She wore a gray blazer and black long-sleeved shirt and had her hair down. She addressed the judge only briefly. Wendy Lewis, one of Kouri’s new defense attorneys, sat next to her.
Lewis agreed with Mrazik that the district attorney’s office did not intentionally or purposefully interfere with the attorney-client relationship between Kouri and her former attorney, Skye Lazaro, and the law firm of Ray Quinney & Nebeker.
Lazaro filed a motion to disqualify the prosecution in May, shortly before she withdrew from the case, citing concerns about the fairness of the case. She accused prosecutors, particularly lead prosecutor Brad Bloodworth, of wiretapping conversations between lawyers and clients from jail, as well as engaging in intimidation and interrogation. The judge was asked to either remove Bloodworth from the case or disqualify the entire prosecution team.
District Attorney Margaret Olson vehemently denied the allegations. Bloodworth and other staff members briefly accessed some recordings but stopped listening when they realized who was speaking. The issue was addressed last fall and seemed resolved until the motion was filed.
Olson filed a motion with Nester Lewis’ new defense team to raise the issue and put it on the record. She accused Lazaro of inventing a conspiracy theory and a “toxic breadcrumb strategy” by bringing the appellants’ concerns into a criminal case. The goal is to give the defendants another chance at trial if they are convicted – thus creating a flawed process.
“It is wrong for a lawyer to intentionally throw sand in the gears of the legal system,” Olson said in court. She reiterated that she had sworn to protect the rights of the accused and to ensure a fundamentally fair trial.
Lewis said there was no evidence the state intercepted confidential information during the calls, and the recordings were turned over to a taint team that removed them from the system. She did not comment on Lazaro’s allegations about a dispute between prison staff, prosecutors and defense attorneys in March because she was not present.
Mrazik said there were no legal issues with sheriff’s office employees “scanning” materials for contraband or other security concerns. He seemed to believe the employees were doing their jobs.
Olson proposed a robust motion, arguing that the judge needed to carefully consider the motion because the prosecutor’s allegation of misconduct was “the equivalent of an unexploded grenade” and she wanted to protect the records.
Mrazik, however, did not entirely agree. He said that while he understood why the district attorney’s office was upset, there was no evidence of the violations, so the additional elements suggested by Olson were not necessary. He was hesitant to pursue specific avenues because the main concerns had already been addressed in his ruling.
The judge confirmed that an independent review of the case file found no evidence that Bloodworth or any other district attorney’s office official had intentionally violated attorney-client privilege, nor had they given prison staff any instructions on how to deal with Kouri.
Kouri is scheduled to appear in court again on August 26-28 for a preliminary hearing. Mrazik will decide if there is enough evidence to try her for the murder of her husband, Eric Richins.
The 34-year-old has been held without bail since her arrest in May 2023. She is accused of 11 crimes, including aggravated murder, attempted manslaughter, trafficking in controlled substances, forgery, mortgage fraud and false insurance claims.
Eric died of a fentanyl overdose in March 2022. Prosecutors allege Kouri poisoned him with a Moscow Mule cocktail laced with fentanyl and attempted to do so a month earlier on Valentine’s Day with a drug-laced sandwich. District attorneys say Kouri felt trapped in her marriage and had a financial motive to kill her husband.
Kouri and her family maintain their innocence. If convicted, she faces 25 years to life in prison. The death penalty is not an option in this case.
