A hearing on a motion to suppress evidence in the case of Dan Wessels of Flippin who is charged with making threats directed at a Circuit Court Judge and a relative who had custody of his daughter has been set for January 26th.
The date was set during an appearance Wessels made in Baxter County Circuit Court Thursday.
According to the probable cause affidavit, the 56-year-old Wessels came to the office of a Mountain Home attorney on September 27th last year and announced that he intended to “handle” his legal situation himself. When asked what he meant by the statement, Wessels is alleged to have said that he intended to kill everyone associated with his cases. He is reported to have made specific reference to two people — then Circuit Court Judge Shawn Womack and Wessels’ mother-in-law who had custody of his daughter.
The attorney said Wessels seemed “distraught and hopeless” because of medical, legal and financial problems and not being able to see in daughter in some time. Court records in Marion County show that Wessels had orders of protection filed against him and that he has filed them against others for at least the past three years.
The Mountain Home attorney reported the threats, the Arkansas State Police became involved and charges of terroristic threatening were filed against Wessels.
Wessels’ attorney, Jeremy Friend of Mountain Home, filed the motion to suppress statements that his client allegedly made to the attorney contending that the communications were confidential and that Wessels had not given permission for what was said in his meeting with the attorney to be reported to a third party.
The basic issue that will be before the court is whether the information should have been protected or whether the alleged threat represented a waiver of that confidentiality.
The Rules of Professional Conduct, for example, deal with the issue of the confidentiality of information and lays out various situations where a lawyer may reveal information provided by a client — one of which is to “prevent the commission of a criminal act”.
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