Trimble’s defense files motions to suppress phone calls

Amanda Garrett

Attorneys for James E. Trimble have filed a motion in Portage County Common Pleas Court to suppress several phone calls made by Trimble to his brother Arthur.

Trimble is accused of killing three people, including Kent State student Sarah Positano.

According to the motion filed Aug. 5, the Portage County Sheriff’s Office recorded several phone calls between Trimble and his brother without the consent of either man. The calls were made from the Portage County Jail to Arthur Trimble’s home in Florida over the spring and summer of this year, the motion said.

Ohio law requires at least one party in a recorded telephone conversation to consent to the recording, wrote public defenders Dennis Lager and John Laczko in the motion. Also, all inmates in a correctional facility must be informed that their conversations are being recorded.

The motions state that inmates at the Portage County Jail were not informed of the monitoring devices on the phones until the week of July 20.

All parties involved in the Trimble case are under a gag order imposed by Judge John Enlow.

In another motion filed on Aug. 5, the defense attorneys are seeking to drop one of the charges against Trimble. Charge No. 22, alleging that Trimble, as a convicted felon, illegally possessed firearms, will be prejudicial to Trimble’s defense because it will bring his criminal history into the case, the motion said.

Twenty-one firearms and several rounds of ammunition were found at Trimble’s residence, 880 Sandy Lake Road in Brimfield.

Trimble, 45, is scheduled to stand trial Sept. 19 for the shooting deaths of his girlfriend Renee Bauer, 42; her 7-year-old son Dakota; and Positano, 22.

Contact on-campus reporter Amanda Garrett at [email protected].