Prosecutors in the case of a pickup truck driver facing negligent homicide charges for allegedly killing seven motorcyclists in a collision want an outside consultant to conduct tests on the vehicle without members of the man's defense team present, according to paperwork filed in a New Hampshire court.
The state has the Dodge Ram truck and an attached trailer involved in the Randolph, New Hampshire, crash in June. It said its consultant "may conduct testing or take additional measurements of the truck." It would document the vehicle's condition before and afterward through a videotaped log and/or in writing.
Prosecutors likened the request to an officer's examination of evidence pursuant to a warrant. State law says an officer executing a search warrant "may take with him suitable assistants and suffer no others to be with him." Prosecutors said the defense team's insistence on being present "is without merit."
The motion filed in Coos County Superior Court in Lancaster said the lawyer for driver Volodymyr Zhukovskyy objected unless someone from the defense team can be at the truck testing.
Zhukovskyy, of West Springfield, Massachusetts, has pleaded not guilty.
