From the April 2004 Idaho Observer:

Yurko one step closer to freedom

Florida judge schedules evidentiary hearing for late August

from the Yurko Project

ORLANDO -- A case management hearing here March 26, 2004, resulted in an evidentiary hearing for the STATE OF FLORIDA v. Alan Yurko to be scheduled for August 23, 2004.

Yurko was sentenced to serve life plus 10 years in 1998 for allegedly shaking his infant son to death. New evidence suggests that Baby Alan died from the contraindicated administration of vaccines and a lethal dose of heparin. Orlando/Osceola County Medical Examiner Shashi Gore's autopsy report, which was critical to Yurko's conviction, has been discredited.

The state told the court it stands behind its conviction and is prepared to continue its persecution of Yurko even though the evidence against him has been impeached.

The Yurko Project has five months to prepare for the hearing and will continue holding its on-line yard sale (see page 10) and other fund raising activities should the state insist upon going to trial, if one is ordered after the evidentiary hearing.

Health activist Gary Null's investigation of our case located a juror from the original trial in 1998 who has now become a staunch advocate for Yurko. He says, knowing what he knows now, he never would have convicted, and that there was pressure to do so. He's been making media statements to this effect.

It was requested at the case management hearing that his testimony be admitted in future proceedings, but the judge delayed decision on that point. The judge did, however, deny Yurko's request to question witnesses directly.

Yurko Project supporters and an increasingly sympathetic local media are stunned that the state plans to defend its conviction, particularly since it has removed Gore from its witness list.

Gore has been ordered not to perform any more autopsies and would have been fired had he not been scheduled to retire this coming June.

At this time, the state appears prepared to proceed in the absence of a valid autopsy. Complicating the state's arguments will be a plethora of other evidence showing gross incompetence and malfeasance among most who were involved in an official capacity.

The Yurko Project theorizes that the prosecution's confidence is based on its knowledge that, no matter how much money the Yurko Project raises, it will always have more because it has the resources of the entire state of Florida to wage against one impoverished family.

The state is already playing its money card. The state has exercised its option to have a discovery hearing and to take depositions from defense witnesses, which must then be reciprocated by Yurko's lawyer. This is an extremely expensive tactic since Yurko has many witnesses ready to testify. It is also a calculated attempt to break the Yurko bank since these depositions are unnecessary as the evidence, which was the basis of the evidentiary hearing being granted, has already been submitted.

The judge requested that Yurko Project supporters refrain from sending letters to his office. He said they are of no help to Yurko and only serve to clog up his office and tick him off. We intend to honor the judge's request.

If you have something you don't need, or want something you do not have, help the Yurko Project raise money at the Yurko Project on-line yard sale at www.ayurkoproject.net

Also go to www.freeyurko.bizland.com.