The Centralia man who pleaded guilty to the rape and murder of a 2-year-old girl who authorities say was "systematically tortured" before her death is attempting to revoke his guilty plea for the second time.
James M. Reeder filed a personal restraint petition with the court of appeals last September. The petition is similar to an appeal.
On Monday, the Lewis County Prosecutor's Office filed a detailed 51-page response to Reeder's petition.
In his petition, Reeder maintains his innocence and that court-appointed defense attorney David Arcuri tricked him into accepting a plea deal he did not want, and he requested that his guilty pleas be tossed out and for the case to go to trial.
In his petition filed last September, Reeder said his attorney did "nothing at all" and that Arcuri created "no defense at all."
"It becomes more and more obvious to any person with a clear, and unbiased mind, that (I) was screwed from the very start of this case," Reeder wrote in his petition.
Reeder also claims there was insufficient evidence in the case, and that other people were involved in the abuse of the child. He claimed he was "not even at the location during the time of the alleged crime(s), due to being in another location."
Reeder also blamed the media for its "large feeding frenzy" and faulted his attorney for not asking for a change of venue for the case.
"It is truly a shame that Mr. Reeder was treated in this way," he wrote.
Despite Reeder insisting his court-appointed attorney was ineffective, the Lewis County Prosecutor's Office disagrees.
In the prosecutor's response to Reeder's petition, Senior Deputy Prosecutor Sara Beigh wrote that during the course of Arcuri's nine-month representation of Reeder, he visited his client 24 times in the jail. The defense attorney filed a motion to suppress evidence and also presented a motion to have a forensic pathologist do an independent review of the toddler's autopsy. Arcuri also negotiated two different plea agreements, the second of which Reeder later accepted.
On Jan. 9, 2013, Reeder accepted the offer and pleaded guilty, but did so in the form of an Alford plea, which allows him to avoid admitting any guilt, but acknowledges that if the case were to go to trial, the evidence against him was substantial enough to lead to a conviction.
He pleaded guilty to homicide by abuse, two counts of first-degree rape of a child, possession of methamphetamine and second-degree assault. By pleading guilty, Reeder waived his right to appeal, his right to withdraw his guilty plea and his right to collaterally attack his judgment and sentence.
Three weeks later, however, Reeder once again went before Superior CourtJudge James Lawler and requested the judge disregard his guilty plea and allow the case to go to trial.
Reeder told the judge his attorney had tricked and lied to him, and had used his parents to try and coerce him into accepting the plea.
He also said the day he pleaded guilty he was "groggy" from the medication he took, and that he only "vaguely" remembered what happened during that court hearing.
Lawler denied Reeder's request, adding that he did not believe the allegations made against Arcuri, who has worked as an attorney in Lewis County for the past 16 years.
"I'm well acquainted with Mr. Arcuri, and his work, and his ethics," the judge told Reeder. "So, frankly I don't believe the allegations that he lied to you."
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