CINCINNATI — A county judge has scheduled a hearing Monday on a prosecutor’s request for a change of venue in the retrial of a white former police officer in the shooting death of a black man.
Hamilton County prosecutor Joe Deters last week said he would seek a new venue in the retrial of fired University of Cincinnati officer Ray Tensing on the same charges on which jurors deadlocked.
A judge declared a mistrial Nov. 12 after jurors remained hung after 25 hours of deliberations. The charges are murder and voluntary manslaughter in the July 19, 2015, fatal shooting of Sam DuBose.
Deters’s decision to retry the former officer was widely expected, but the venue change request came as a surprise. Deters said he wants a jury in another county, away from intense local attention.
Usually change-of-venue requests are made by defense attorneys who think a fair and impartial jury can’t be seated, legal analysts say.
‘‘I’ve been practicing law since 1989, and I’ve never, ever, had a prosecutor request a change of venue,’’ said attorney Carl Lewis.
Jurors in the racially charged case were scared of being identified, even revolting and refusing to come out of the jury room at one point, Deters said. Prosecutors talked to some of the jurors after the mistrial, and Deters said prosecutors think the intense local attention could have ‘‘seeped into the jury room.’’