Affidavits of Buting and Strang

The **affidavits of Buting and Strang** are affidavits by Steven Avery's former attorneys Jerome Buting and Dean Strang. Buting has signed one affidavit, for an appeal by Kathleen Zellner. Strang has signed a total of three affidavits; two for Zellner and another in 2006 when he himself represented Avery.

## Affidavit of Dean A. Strang

### Date signed

14 June 2016

Dean A. Strang, first duly being sworn, on oath deposes and states:

1. I represent Steven A. Avery, the defendant in this case. I make this affidavit in support of his motion to change venue.
2. I have collected some, but not all, of the television, news paper,internet, and radio coverage of (a) the investigation into the disappearance of Teresa Halbach before any charges were filed, (b) this criminal case, (c) the related criminal case of *State of Wisconsin v. Brendan R, Dassey*, and (d) the Halbach family's wrongful death action against Steven Avery and more recently Brendan Dassey, since I entered my appearance in this case on or about February 24,2006. I also received from previous defense counsel, Erik Loy and Craig Johnson of the State Public Defender's office, some of their files. Those files included some evidence of newspaper and television coverage before I entered my appearance as Mr. Avery's lawyer.
3. While, again, the documentation of media coverage that I have assembled is by no means complete, my files include the following at a minimum:

**a.** 24 DVD's, each 60 minutes in length, containing back-to-back selected televised stories relating to the investigation into Teresa Halbach's disappearance and death, the prosecution of Steven Avery, the prosecution of Brendan Dassey, the Halbach family's wrongful death action against Mr. Avery, or some combination of these topics. Total running time of these televised stories should be approximately 1,440 minutes of nothing other than coverage related to this investigation and prosecution. Separately, there are 4 VHS tapes from Green Bay television stations WLUK, WFRV, and WBAY of televised stories relating to the topics above, obtained by Mr. Avery's first lawyers from the state Public Defender's office. Finally, I have one DVD with 17:26 of footage from the two-part series that WLUK, Fox 11, aired about Mr. Avery on May 10-11, 2006. This includes sheriff Kenneth Petersen's interview.
**b.** 449 pages of printed excerpts of televised story scripts, from which I selected those stories to be included on the DVD's listed in paragraph 3.a above. The excerpts are in single-space format and do not include the entire text of the televised story; rather, they include the lead sentence or two. I estimate that I chose not to include perhaps 1/4 to 1/2 of the total number of televised stories, either because of repetition, shortness of the story (I typically excluded any story under roughly 45-60 seconds), or small market share of viewers because of the time of day (for example, often I excluded 5 a.m. newscasts).
**c.** At least 54 newspaper articles and one magazine article concerning the investigation into Teresa Halbach's disappearance and death, the prosecution of Steven Avery, the prosecution of Brendan Dassey, the Halbach family's wrongful death action against Mr. Avery, or some combination of these topics. Newspapers include the MANITOWOC HERALD TIMES, the GREEN BAY PRESS-GAZETTE, the MILWAUKEE JOURNAL SENTINAL, the WISCONSIN STATE JOURNAL, the CAPITAL TIMES, the MILWAUKEE MAGAZINE, the SHEBOYGAN PRESS, and the TIMES-JOURNAL of Calumet County. I made no concerted effort to gather all newspaper articles relating to the prosecution of Mr. Avery or Mr. Dassey. This collection at best is a representative sample of newspaper publicity bearing on this case, heavily skewed to the time before I entered my appearance as counsel in February 2006. Therefore, this does not include much of thepublicity attending the arrest and charging of Brendan Dassey.
**d.** The boxes include 95 pages of transcripts of WOMT radio broadcast stories and WCUB broadcast stories relating to the investigation into Teresa Halbach's disappearance and death, the prosecution of Steven Avery, the prosecution of Brendan Dassey, the Halbach family's wrongful death action against Mr, Avery, or some combination of these topics. I also know that at least one radio station has had a microphone and a feed at each of the hearings in this case at which I have represented Mr. Avery.
**e.** The boxes include 64 pages of photocopies of internet website or blog stories about the investigation into Teresa Halbach's disappearance and death, the prosecution of Steven Avery, the prosecution of Brendan Dassey, the Halbach family's wrongful death action against Mr. Avery or some combination of these topics. Most of these were assembled by Mr. Avery's first lawyers, from the State Public Defender's office.
**f.** Also from the state Public Defender's office, I received approximately 11-1/2 inches of teleprompter scripts from Green Bay television stations, as measured stacked one on top of the other. In all, this probably is over 1,000 pages of teleprompter script, although I have not counted the pages (which are unnumbered). I am certain that there is some overlap between those televised stories and the stories that I later had copied to DVD, as described in paragraph 3.a above.
4. The materials I have assembled on the issue of a change of venue nearly fill five banker's boxes. Most television reports are on DVD as noted in paragraph 3.a above, with just relevant segments assembled one after another. So each DVD has dozens of television reports on the Halbach investigation, the Avery case, the Dassey case, the wrongful death action captioned *Halbach v. Avery*, or some combination of these.
5. I also know that television coverage in particular has included at least eight news conferences concerning the disappearance and death of Teresa Halbach, the arrest and charging of Steven Avery, searches of Avery family properties, and the arrest and charging of Brendan Dassey. The lead prosecutor, the Calumet County Sheriff, and other investigators on this case participated in most of those news conferences. I believe that the lead prosecutor participated in six of them and the Calumet County Sheriff in seven. Some of these news conferences have included inadmissibie information and opinions of the prosecutor and law enforcement officers bearing on the suspected guilt of Mr. Avery, Brendan Dassey, or both. Further, television coverage has included footage of Mr. Avery and various of his family members expressing opinions on guilt or innocence, and expressing opinions that Manitowoc County law enforcement officers either are biased against the Avery family generally or have framed Steven Avery in particular.
6. Although I cannot estimate the number or percentage, I know that many of the televised stories and newspaper articles have made reference to Mr. Avery's prior wrongful conviction for a rape he did not commit in 1985, and to the 18 years he spent wrongly imprisoned for that crime. Others also have referred to Mr. Avery's $36 million federal lawsuit against Manitowoc County. A smaller number of televised stories I know refer to Mr. Avery's other prior convictions, and to Department of Corrections records on his conduct in prison.
7. There have been some explicit editorials in newspapers relating to this case in part because of the connection that politicians have drawn between this case and the advisory referendum question on the death penalty that now will be on the November 2006 ballot in Wisconsin.
8. Much of the television and newspaper coverage has been inflammatory, in my opinion. The reasons are several, and subject to differing assessments. First, the allegations concerning the manner of Teresa Halbach's death and the events preceding it are shocking and horribie. Second, Mr. Avery has the unusual history of having been exonerated by DNA evidence for a prior rape conviction after 18 years in prison. Third, his $36 million civil rights lawsuit against Manitowoc County and its agents garnered publicity of its own in the two years preceding Teresa Halbach's disappearance. Mr. Avery filed that federal lawsuit on October 12, 2004, according to the electronic records of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Wisconsin. Fourth, between November 5, 2005 and March 2, 2006, the special prosecutor and other state actors associated with the investigation and prosecution of Mr. Avery made several televised comments that included opinions and commentary on specific items of evidence. There may be other reasons as well.
9. I will make available to the Court or to counsel for the state any or all of the documentation of media coverage that I have gathered, upon request. But, because I have reason to believe that the state likely will not contest Mr. Avery's motion for change of venue, at this juncture I do not perceive a need to burden the Clerk of Court's office with five banker's boxes of bulky and odd-sized exhibits, including two dozen DVDs, dozens of newspaper articles, printed pages from websites and internet articles, and one thousand pages or more of transcripts of radio and television broadcasts.
10. Should the state contest the motion for change of venue, I will resuest an evidentiary hearing and a ruling from the Court on how to make the materials I have gathered in support of this motion exhibits of record in this case.

## Affidavit of Dean A. Strang

### Part of motion

*Defendant Steven Avery’s Second Amended Supplement to Previously Filed Motion For Reconsideration*

### Date signed

16 November 2016

Dean A. Strang, first duly sworn, on oath deposes and states:

1. I am a lawyer licensed to practice in the State of Wisconsin and several federal courts. From sometime in February 2006 through June 1, 2007, I was one of Steven Avery's lawyers in this case. I make this affidavit at the request of his current lawyers.
2. During the months between the time I entered my appearance as Steven Avery's lawyer and the end of trial, I was aware of blood found in Teresa Halbach's Toyota RAV-4. I knew that some of the blood, generally in the area in which the driver sits, was attributed to Steven Avery. I also knew that some of the blood, generally in the rear cargo area of the car, was attributed to Teresa Halbach. I knew that an acquittal very likely would depend in part upon an explanation for Steven Avery's blood being found in the Toyota RAV-4 other than because he was in that car himself.
3. To my recollection, I did not consider hiring a blood spatter expert who might have consulted, done independent testing, testified, or all three as to the bloodstains found in either of those two general areas of Ms. Halbach's car. I did not have a strategic reason for not considering or hiring such an expert or experts.
4. One of the state's theories as to the cause of death of Teresa Halbach was that she was shot twice in the head. At some point in April 2006, I believe, I learned that the state claimed that a spent bullet had been recovered from a garage near Mr. Avery's trailer. I knew at some point that the state also would offer evidence that Ms. Halbach's DNA was found on that bullet.
5. To my recollection, I did not consider hiring a ballistics expert who might have consulted, done independent testing, testified, or all three as to trace evidence that might have been recoverable from that bullet. I did not have a strategic reason for not considering or hiring such an expert or experts. To my recollection, my co-counsel, Jerome Buting, and I focused on the state expert's conclusions tying the bullet to a specific rifle by microscopic examination. A defense expert on trace analysis of the bullet would not have been inconsistent with that focus.
6. Again, I did not have a strategic reason for these decisions. My client, Mr. Avery, is not to blame for them in any way and he met his obligations to me and Mr. Buting. If someone is to blame for these decisions, it is I.

## Affidavit of Dean A. Strang

### Pages

3 (without exhibits)
5 (with exhibits)

### Date signed

27 June 2018

1. I am a lawyer licensed to practice in the State of Wisconsin and several federal courts. From sometime in February 2006 through June 1, 2007, I was one of Steven Avery's lawyers in this case. I make this affidavit at the request of his current lawyers. This is my second such affidavit.
2. To my recollection, the State of Wisconsin, through the prosecution team in this case or otherwise, during my tenure as one of Steven Avery's lawyers never provided to defense counsel for Mr. Avery a CD-ROM from Det. Mike Velie of his forensic analysis of a computer from the Barb Janda/Dassey brothers' home. I think that I would remember had defense counsel received such a CD-ROM, or received a forensic analysis of that computer in any form.
3. Also to my recollection, the computer at issue consistently was described to us by the prosecution team and by law enforcement reports as Brendan Dassey's computer. I did not know then that this might well be a misleading description of the computer's ownership and relevant user or users.
4. I accepted without challenge Ken Kratz's assertion in a January 25, 2007 email to me that Velie's analysis of "Steve, Teresa's and Brendan's" computers yielded "nothing much of evidentiary value." With the belated production of the Velie forensic analysis to Mr. Avery's current lawyers in April 2018, it now appears to me from materials that Ms. Zellner and co-counsel have filed that the Velie forensic analysis in fact did include much of evidentiary value, in direct contradiction to Mr. Kratz's claim. Given what I know now about the existence and content of the Velie forensic analysis, this looks to me like deceit. It looks like deceit about who used this computer; it looks like deceit about the evidentiary value of the information extracted from the computer. At a minimum, it looks like material information bearing on innocence that the state knowingly possessed, had exclusively in its possession, and withheld from the defense.
5. Had my co-counsel, Jerome Buting, and I known before trial or during trial about the contents of the Velie forensic analysis described now in Gary Hunt's affidavits, we would have used the information in the Velie forensic analysis to support our *Denny* motion by strengthening our showing that Bobby Dassey was an alternate suspect. At a minimum, that information would have gone to Bobby Dassey's availability and opportunity to commit violent crimes against, and kill, Teresa Halbach on October 31, 2005; to his sexual motive or other deviant motive to do so; to his proclivity or propensity—his legitimate tendency—to consider and commit exactly the sort of violence inflicted on Teresa Halbach; and to the credibility of his alibi. We also would have sought to introduce evidence of incriminating internet searches that likely were made by Bobby Dassey, and would have confronted him on cross-examination with those searches and other information contained in the Velie forensic analysis.
6. Information demonstrating a probability that Bobby Dassey used that computer to gain access to the internet on October 31, 2005, during times that he claimed to be asleep and while Brendan Dassey was known to be at school that day, also would have been used in cross-examination of Bobby Dassey at trial, had we known that information in the Det. Velie and Gary Hunt forensic analyses. I note that, in the end, the jury asked during deliberations for Bobby Dassey's testimony.
7. My firm and I did not have Encase while representing Mr. Avery. I think that Mr. Buting did not, either. So, we could not review the data on the seven DVDs given to us. Of course, we never got the Velie CD-ROM at all. We had no inkling what forensic analysis of that computer truly revealed before the trial of Mr. Avery, either as to who probably made incriminating internet searches or as to the information and images viewed. We had instead Mr. Kratz's incorrect claim that there was "nothing much of evidentiary value" on "Brendan's Computer." That claim was wrong on both points.
8. But if for some reason we should have learned enough from the DVDs that we were given to know what Det. Velie's analysis, and Mr. Hunt's, revealed about Bobby Dassey being the likely relevant user of the computer and about the nature of some internet searches at the times identified, then our performance was deficient and the deficient performance was my fault. Mr. Buting and I had no strategic reason not to want evidence suggesting that Bobby Dassey was looking for information about violence to women, or images of that, and seeking information similar to some of the harm that may have been done to Teresa Halbach or bearing on the destruction of her body. Quite the contrary: as I have said here, we would have welcomed this information, had we known it existed.
9. Finally, of course we wanted this information if it was in the state's possession. We had asked in writing for exculpatory information with all the specifics we could. Based on what Mr. Avery's current counsel has shared with me now about the Velie and Hunt forensic analyses, the analysis that Velie provided to the State included materially exculpatory information in the state's exclusive possession.

## Affidavit of Jerome F. Buting

### Part of motion

*Defendant Steven Avery’s Second Amended Supplement to Previously Filed Motion For Reconsideration*

### Pages

3 (without exhibits)
9 (with exhibits)

### Date signed

13 November 2017

I. Jerome F. Buting, swear and depose as follows:

1. I am an attorney licensed to practice law in the State of Wisconsin.
2. I was one of the attorneys retained to represent Steven Avery at his trial in this case. I represented him from about March 2006 through June 1, 2007.
3. During our pretrial representation of Mr. Avery we periodically received discovery from Special Prosecutor, Kenneth Kratz. Items of discovery that we received from Mr. Kratz were itemized by a cover letter which went along with the disclosure of such items to Mr. Avery's defense counsel.
4. By correspondence dated December 14, 2006, attached as Exhibit 1 to this affidavit, we received a large batch of discovery from Special Prosecutor Kratz. Contained in that batch of discovery was a report from Special Agent Thomas Fassbender, entitled, "Examination of Brendan Dassey Computer." The report number for that report was DCI Report No. 05-1776/304. The report by Special Agent Fassbender had a report date of December 7, 2006. It is attached as Exhibit 2 to this affidavit.
5. DCI Report No. 05-1776/304 describes the state's seizure of a computer from a Dassey residence on Friday, April 21, 2006. The report states that on April 22, 2006 the Dassey computer was transferred to Detective Mike Velie of the Grand Chute Police Department for forensic examination. According to the report Det. Velie returned the computer to Special Agent Fassbender on May 11, 2006. The report states that on some unspecified subsequent date Fassbender received from Det. Velie a CD titled "Dassey's computer, final report, investigative copy." The report further states that this CD "contained information on websites and images from the hard drive." Special Agent Fassbender further states in the report that images found on the Dassey computer included violent pornography, including "injuries to humans, to include a decapitated head, badly injured and bloody body, a bloody head injury, and a mutilated body."
6. Neither the above referenced CD nor the investigative report of Det. Velie was ever turned over in discovery. The December 14, 2006 letter from Special Prosecutor Kratz (Exhibit 1) which itemizes the discovery related to this report, confirms by omission that no CD entitled "Dassey's computer, final report, investigative copy" was included in this batch of discovery.
7. At the end of DCI Report No. 05-1776/304 Special Agent Fassbender indicates that he never booked the CD into evidence that was maintained by the Calumet County Sheriff's Dept. on the Avery case. Instead, the report states, "the disc received from Det. Velie, as well as the hard copy pages of instant message conversations were maintained in Special Agent Fassbender's possession."
8. Co-counsel Dean Strang and I met with Calumet County Sheriff's Deputy Jeremy Hawkin, before trial, and viewed all of the evidence maintained by that department in their property inventory on this case. To the best of my recollection, tbe CD entitled, "Dassey's computer, final report, investigative copy" was not contained in any evidence that we reviewed at the Calumet County Sheriff's Office.
9. To the best of my recollection I never saw the CD entitled, "Dassey's computer, final report, investigative copy" or any of the violent pornography images discussed by Special Agent Fassbender.
10. At approximately the same time that the December 14, 2006 mass of discovery was received by us, defense counsel was preparing a motion under *State v. Denny* to introduce evidence of (third-party suspects at Mr. Avery's trial. In that *Denny* motion, subsequently filed by the defense on January 8, 2007, we named Bobby Dassey as a possible suspect for the homicide of Teresa Halbach. We established that he had access and opportunity to have committed the crime, but the court ruled no motive was established and therefore denied the Denny motion as to Bobby Dassey and others. If there was anything that was on the CD investigator report from Det. Velie that would have linked Bobby Dassey to the violent porn images found on the Dassey computer, we would have included such information in our *Denny* motion. Such information could have strengthened Bobby Dassey as a possible suspect who may have sexually assaulted and killed Ms. Halbach, and specifically would have provided evidence of a motive.