GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — Two local attorneys who followed the Whitmer kidnapping plot trial have different reactions to the partial verdict given by the jury on Friday.
Kirsten Holz is a defense attorney with Levine and Levine, while Patrick Miles is a former U.S. prosecutor.
Miles thought the prosecutors on this trial laid out a great case for a guilty verdict.
"I'm very surprised that two of the defendants were found not guilty on all charges," says Miles.
And while Holz was surprised that the federal government lost a case of this magnitude, she wasn't necessarily shocked by the outcome.
"I also wasn't surprised because, I thought that the defense attorneys did a fabulous job," she says.
Prior to the start of the trial, Holz says she expected a mistrial.
She ended up being partially correct.
"I don't like to be right, because I know that doesn't bring closure for everybody involved," says Holz. "But that's what I kind of predicted."
Miles, on the other hand, felt like plea deals by other co-defendants meant a guilty verdict was close to certain.
"When you have two of their co-defendants who were cooperating with the prosecution, because they pled guilty, and you have undercover FBI agents testifying, usually that should be sufficient to persuade a jury," says Miles. "But in this case, it just wasn't."
Both attorneys agree that as the deliberations continued further into the week, the defense was in a better position to win.
For the two defendants who received mistrials, Holz strongly believes charges will be refiled.
"I would anticipate it would be happening fairly soon," she says. "Within the next couple of weeks."
Miles thinks it's possible, but a little further down the road.
"I think the U.S. Attorney's Office is going to take a little bit of time here and look at it," says Miles. "Think about what defects there are."
In the end, Miles hopes even with a partial verdict, that the trial will shed light on political violence around the country.
"Even if there aren't criminal convictions in this instance, we still, overall, have to respect our democratic processes in America," says Miles.
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