Information limited in case

Defendant's police 'watchdog' role won't be mentioned at trial

Dale E. McCormick is known for spewing foul-mouthed, face-to-face tirades at on-duty Lawrence police officers — an activity he considers his full-time job — but that won’t be part of the evidence at his upcoming trial for burglary and kidnapping.

A prosecutor agreed at a hearing Tuesday to not mention before jurors McCormick’s anti-cop activity or his Web site, www.shadowave.org, from which he sells videos of himself cursing at police and telling them his taunts are protected speech.

Prosecutor Jacqueline J. Spradling, a special assistant district attorney from Johnson County, also agreed to not mention that McCormick’s court-appointed attorneys, Mark Manna and Alice White, are members of the state’s death-penalty defense unit.

Manna and White were appointed to handle McCormick’s case — to the surprise of Lawrence Police officers — after Judge Michael Malone had difficulty finding an area attorney who was both qualified to represent McCormick and who wouldn’t have a conflict of interest.

Manna and White earn an annual salary through the state Board of Indigents Defense Services, which oversees defense appointments for felony defendants such as McCormick who can’t afford to hire an attorney, said Pat Scalia, who administers the board. However, in McCormick’s case the state is not spending money earmarked for death-penalty defense, she said.

“There will be no mention of the other title or the other roles,” Malone said Tuesday. “It’s purely irrelevant as far as this case goes.”

McCormick, 32, faces charges that early on the morning of Feb. 16, he broke into the home of a Lawrence woman who claims he has been stalking her and held her against her will. Malone on Tuesday scheduled a Sept. 16 hearing to issue a ruling on, among other issues, whether the history of their relationship was admissible as evidence.