In a rare move, prosecutors in the retrial of former University of Cincinnati police officer Ray Tensing criticized a lead investigator, saying she asked Tensing “easy question after easy question” and never intended for him to face charges, the Cincinnati Enquirer reports. “When she said, ‘It’s just a formality,’” prosecutor Seth Tieger told jurors, referring to Cincinnati police Sgt. Shannon Heine’s interview of Tensing, “what she meant was, ‘Don’t worry, you’re going to get what you want.’” During closing arguments yesterday, Tieger said Heine “was given this major case with little or no experience.” He said Heine, now a sergeant, spent only four months in the homicide unit. Police were judging one of their own, he added.
Tieger had little choice but to attack Heine, who appeared to catch prosecutors off-guard when she testified early in the trial that Tensing’s actions “may be determined to be justified.” Heine also said there wasn’t anything in Tensing’s statement that was inconsistent with what she knew about the case. Attorney Mark Krumbein, who handled about 80 murder cases over three decades, said he has never seen the prosecution attack its lead investigator. Tieger said Tensing created the “dangerous situation” that led him to fatally shoot Sam DuBose in the head as DuBose tried to drive away from a traffic stop. Jurors deliberated for about three hours Monday afternoon without reaching a verdict.