Judge questions defense strategy of 'Jones' attorneys

The defense plans to present testimony that a man who revealed a same-sex crush on the show and the man he a crush on had a sexual relationship after the taping. Oakland County Circuit Judge Gene Schnelz said he's not sure whether jurors will find the testimony credible.

''I don't think it is a perfect defense,'' Schnelz said with the jury out of the courtroom. ''If that's the defense they want to put forward, that's their business.''

The $50 million lawsuit by Scott Amedure's family accuses the show, its distributor and producer as being culpable in Amedure's March 1995 death three days after he revealed his secret crush on Jonathan Schmitz.

The family has argued that the show tricked Schmitz into appearing for the 1995 taping that never aired, then subjected him to on-stage humiliation culminating in Amedure's slaying.

Defense attorneys have said that Schmitz - who has said he was heterosexual - and Amedure had a sexual relationship after the taping, making it a lover's quarrel, of sorts, that absolves the show of liability.

The defense pressed that point yesterday while cross-examining a psychiatrist, saying Amedure supposedly told his mother of his romance with Schmitz after the taping of the episode titled ''Same Sex Secret Crushes.''

During a recess with jurors out of the courtroom, the attorney for Amedure's family, Geoffrey Fieger, said there was a lack of proof that Amedure had confided with his mother about such a relationship and said it meant only to prejudice the jury.

''It's the biggest red herring in the world,'' Fieger told Schnelz.

Schnelz again ruled Amedure's supposed statement as hearsay, but usable by the defense.

Even so, Schnelz likened it to ''a match ready to strike'' and questioned aloud how such testimony would play to jurors, given Amedure's mother's claims she didn't believe her son's claims of intimacy with Schmitz.

Schnelz also said Amedure's death ''severely weakened'' the reliability of his supposed statement by limiting available tests of its validity.

Yesterday was the second day of testimony on the Amedure family's behalf by Bernard Carroll, a psychiatrist who on Wednesday said, ''Jonathan Schmitz would not have killed Scott Amedure but for them appearing on this show.''

Under defense questioning, Carroll again accused the show of duping Schmitz into believing the secret admirer would be a woman, knowing it was Amedure.

''This person (Schmitz) had given warning to the producers that 'I don't want this to happen.' They went ahead,'' Carroll said.

He accused the show of ''pandering'' with a scripted match-making episode using guests as props to humiliate Schmitz ''for the sadistic delight of the audience.''

Carroll said he reviewed Schmitz's medical records and had diagnosed him as suffering from depression and bipolar disorder and occasional psychotic episodes.

But Carroll acknowledged that in agreeing to appear on the show, Schmitz seemed competent in signing documentation attesting he was being truthful.

Schmitz was convicted of Amedure's murder, but the verdict was overturned because of an error in jury selection.

His retrial is scheduled for Aug. 19.

04-09-99