Update: 1:45 p.m. Wednesday: Coach George O’Leary came into the court, wearing a suit and ready to testify Wednesday afternoon. However, he left court after the lawyers decided they wouldn’t need him today after all, due to scheduling issues of other witnesses. It was the first time O’Leary came to court since KnightNews.com started gavel-to-gavel coverage of this trial. He’s expected to testify first thing tomorrow morning. Come back then to watch it on our live stream.
UCF Coach George O’Leary is expected to take the stand Wednesday in the Ereck Plancher wrongful death trial just one day after tensions in the courtroom became so high the judge threatened attorneys with sanctions — including being forced to clean trash off the streets.
Live Streaming video of Ereck Plancher Trial:
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In between the bickering, jurors heard sworn testimony read from written depositions and watched videotaped depositions take from some of the volunteer UCF Athletic trainers.
They all testified that they had not known about Plancher’s sickle cell trait until after his death.
One of the biggest moments of day seven involved Dr. Joshua Stephany, an Orange County medical examiner subpoenaed by the Plancher family lawyers to testify about how he didn’t believe Plancher had died from heat stroke or a sudden cardiac death, but rather from complications of sickle cell trait — a blood disorder that the plaintiffs contend can kill athletes if they are pushed too hard.
UCF athletic association lawyers allege the medical examiner got the cause of death wrong. They contend Plancher died of an unknown heart condition — which would help shift liability away from the defendant.
Video Recap of Day 7 in Ereck Plancher Trial:
This is the second high-profile case unfolding in Orlando where the defendants are accusing the office of the Orange County Medical Examiner of severely botching the autopsy when determining what prompted a death. The other case is the Casey Anthony murder trial, where the accused child killer’s defense team has alleged the medical examiner wrongly determined Anthony’s daughter Caylee to have died as a result of a homicide, rather than by an accident such drowning.
But the medical examiner who examined Plancher stood by his story. He testified how he had never seen sickling like Plancher’s before, out of all the other autopsies he conducted.
The defense has yet to question the medical examiner on cross examination, but will do so Wednesday morning before O’Leary is expected to take the stand.
KnightNews.com will be in court again tomorrow, to provide live streaming coverage of O’Leary’s testimony — the most high-profile witness yet to take the stand.
