Kohberger’s attorney in legal hot water for polling potential jurors

MOSCOW, Idaho (KMVT/KSVT) — The attorney representing alleged killer Bryan Kohberger has potentially landed herself and her client in hot water by violating a gag order.

Anne Taylor, who is representing Kohberger in the slaying of four University of Idaho students in November of 2022, has accused the public of bias against her client after Latah County residents contacted the police to report a defense expert contacting them for a survey.

According to Taylor, the survey is part of the defense’s strategy to gather evidence ahead of the change of venue hearing. Taylor wrote: “due to the bias and interconnectivity in Latah County, citizens called police and the prosecutor about the survey.”

In multiple court filings Taylor has accused Latah County Prosecuting Attorney Bill Thompson and his office of trying to skirt due process in a motion filed by the prosecution to ban either side from contacting potential jurors in Latah County.

At issue is the that the defense hired Bryan Edelman, a social psychologist, to conduct the polling by surveying residents about media influence in the case. And in a written declaration, Edelman denied violating the gag order with his survey, stating none of his survey questions “included any information that was not widely reported and available in the public domain.”

Thompson, meanwhile, has accused Kohberger’s legal team of violating Judge John C. Judge’s restrictive gag order regarding the survey by discussing case specifics and disclosing information that would be inadmissible at trial.

To which Judge agreed and has banned juror contact “until further notice.” A hearing is scheduled for Thursday at 1:30 p.m. to discuss the matter.

Jury contact is typically forbidden, but surveys have been used in the past to bolster defense attorneys’ arguments for a change of venue.

Kohberger, 29, studied violent criminals, including the serial killer BTK, whose real name is Dennis Rader, and was pursuing a Ph.D. in criminology at Washington State University in Pullman, Washington, at the time of the murders.

The WSU campus is just 7 miles from Moscow, where four UI students were stabbed to death in their off-campus house on King Road on November 13, 2022.

Kohberger is accused in the stabbing deaths of Madison Mogen, 21, Kaylee Goncalves, 21, Xana Kernodle, 20, and Ethan Chapin, 20.

If convicted, he could face the death penalty, a jury trial is tentatively scheduled for the summer of 2025.

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