Prosecutor in Cars for Kids
case accused of misconduct

Published Friday, April 4
By Jeff York
For the Daily Corinthian

SELMER, Tenn. -- The lawyer for the driver indicted for the Cars for Kids accident has asked in a motion in McNairy County Circuit Court to have the district attorney be replaced in the case because of prosecutorial misconduct.

Robert Hutton, lawyer for Troy Critchley, has asked that District Attorney General Michael Dunavant be disqualified from prosecution of this case and the indictment of Critchley be dismissed due to prosecutorial misconduct.

Critchley is charged with six counts of vehicular homicide by reckless conduct and 22 counts of aggravated assault by reckless conduct. The charges all stem from Critchley's volunteering to perform an exhibition burnout at the annual Cars for Kids charity event in Selmer on June 16, 2007. McNairy County Circuit Court Judge Weber McCraw will hear all the motions filed by Critchley in a hearing on Aug. 15.

Critchley had previously filed a motion to dismiss the indictment due to entrapment by estoppel. The motion said that since Selmer City Officials enabled the exhibition burnout to take place, Critchley should not be prosecuted for an act which the government led him to believe was permitted, according to the motion.

Dunavant is accused by his actions of threatening Selmer Police Chief Neal Burks with indictment for testifying on behalf of Critchley, according to the motion filed by Critchley.

"After the hearing District Attorney Michael Dunavant apparently approached Selmer Police Investigator Roger Rickman, and asked him to relay to Chief Burks that Dunavant did not appreciate him testifying for Critchley, and to remind Chief Burks that Dunavant has indicted another Chief of Police in the district (presumably Billy Phillips of Galloway)," the motion states. Chief Burks said he had been advised by a lawyer to not make any comments. General Dunavant was out of town and could not be reached for comment on the latest motion filed in the case.

Critchley, who is living in Texas, is out on $35,000 bond and voluntarily gave up his passport.

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