Bryan Kohberger judge could slap contempt charges on leakers: Idaho-based lawyer
An Idaho-based lawyer says the judge overseeing the Bryan Kohberger quadruple murder case could sanction the prosecution or defense team for contempt of court after new information was leaked to a media outlet.
A TV episode about the Bryan Kohberger investigation aired on May 9, and featured new search records, surveillance video and cellphone records. Kohberger is accused of killing Xana Kernodle, 20, Kaylee Goncalves, 21, Madison Mogen, 21, and Ethan Chapin, 20.
Information shared during the "Dateline" episode included surveillance video from a neighboring house, which showed a car similar to Kohberger's in the King Road area several times before the four University of Idaho students were killed.
The episode also claimed that FBI cellphone tower data showed that Kohberger's phone pinged nearly a dozen times near a tower that provides coverage to the area within 100 feet of 1122 King Road, where the four University of Idaho students were killed. The phone pinged near the tower starting in July 2022 and continued through mid-August 2022.
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In a May 15 order, Judge Steven Hippler said the gag order was "likely" violated by someone involved in the case, saying it's possible law enforcement was the source of the leak. He ordered anyone who has worked for the defense team or investigation to retain all communications and data relating to the case.
Hippler said the following pieces of evidence were revealed during the episode:
"Such violations not only undermine the rule of law, potentially by persons charged with upholding it, but also significantly impede the ability to seat an impartial jury and will likely substantially increase the cost to be borne by the taxpayers of Latah County to prosecute this case by extending the time it will take to seat a jury and potentially requiring lengthy period of juror sequestration," Hippler wrote.
Tara Jalali Malek, an Idaho-based lawyer and former assistant United States attorney, told Fox News Digital that Hippler could hold the prosecution or defense team accountable if it's found the leak came from them.
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"Violation of a court's order is sanctionable," Malek said. "It could be contempt of court, and contempt can be civil contempt or it could be criminal contempt. That is going to be completely separate from what happens ultimately in the trial, but things that you see with contempt, there could be a fine. There could be a public reprimand, for instance. So there's a variety of things that the court could possibly do or not do if it's found that someone violated that gag order."
"Anyone who violated the order, no matter what side, would be held in contempt," she added.
However, Malek said she doesn't think the leak will result in the trial being delayed, as Kohberger's defense team has requested.
"I would be hard-pressed to think that the entire trial would stop as a result of this," she said. "I think what is most likely, in my opinion, to happen is that the trial will move forward. This will be on a separate track as far as the investigation goes and figuring out who leaked the information, which side was it from. And then ultimately, who else, if anybody was involved or had knowledge of it, or like I said, it was just a rogue actor here that, you know, needs to be personally sanctioned in some way."
As the trial is scheduled to begin on Aug. 11, another surprise witness has emerged.
A woman claiming to be a DoorDash driver says she dropped off food for Xana Kernodle just minutes before Kohberger allegedly killed the college student. The purported driver came to light after a YouTube account, Officer Axon, obtained body camera video that featured the woman.
"I have to testify in a big murder case here... because I'm the DoorDash driver, so yeah," she says in the video.
The officer then asked what case she was going to testify in.
"The murder case with the college girls," she said. "I'm the DoorDash driver. I saw Bryan there. I parked right next to him."