Gatto seeks to suppress statements

Fri, 08/24/2018 - 8:30pm

Shawna Gatto, acccused in the murder of her fiance’s 4-year-old granddaughter Kendall Chick of Wiscasset, is asking the court to suppress statements she made under questioning after Dec. 10, 2017.  Chick died Dec. 8, less than a year after being placed in her grandfather’s custody.

In court documents, Gatto's attorney Jeremy Pratt of Camden said Gatto made an “unequivocal assertion” of her right to remain silent and her request for an attorney, but that police continued questioning her.

Pratt also claims Gatto had not received her Miranda warning so, he argues, any statement she made should be suppressed.

A separate motion involves forensic pathologist Mark Flomenbaum, who examined Chick’s body. Court records state Flomenbaum is a fairly well-known forensic pathologist, lauded for his work with victims of 9/11, but that in 2007, Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick fired him as that state's chief medical examiner. The firing came after Flomenbaum's office misplaced a body later found in another man’s grave. Flomenbaum sued the state. The state’s high court dismissed five of the counts and remanded the case to a county court, which ruled in favor of the state on the remaining seven counts.

Pratt seeks to present the Massachusetts firing at trial to impeach Flomenbaum as a witness.

The motions will be heard in Superior Court in Rockland Aug. 30.