BY SHANNON PRATHER
Pioneer Press
Constance Trimble is supposed to be a key witness next month against two men accused in the 1970 ambush killing of St. Paul police officer James Sackett.
But attorneys for defendant Ronald Reed are hinting that Trimble might not live up to her star billing.
In fact, Reed’s defense lawyers stated in a Jan. 5 court filing that they might rely on Trimble to bolster their client’s alibi for the night of the killing.
Prosecutors said the Reed defense team’s court filing does not mean Trimble will cooperate with the defense. They said they remain confident about their case against Reed, 55, and Larry Clark, 54, who face trial Feb. 6.
“Nothing has changed from our perspective,” said Jack Rhodes, a spokesman for Ramsey County Attorney Susan Gaertner. “We’ll be ready for trial.”
Defense attorneys for Clark and Reed refused to comment. But the Reed filing and Trimble’s recent actions related to the almost 36-year-old case raise questions about her eagerness to help the prosecution.
Last month, Trimble declined to travel from her home in Colorado to St. Paul to record her testimony before the trial, citing deaths in her family. Prosecutors had wanted Trimble, who has cancer, to testify in advance in case she becomes too ill to travel.
Also, Trimble has hired a lawyer, though her reasons for doing so remain unclear. Trimble, 53, declined to comment Tuesday. Trimble’s attorney, Larry E. Reed, did not return calls for comment. Her attorney is not believed to be related to defendant Ronald Reed.
In January 2005, Reed and Clark were indicted on charges of first-degree murder and conspiracy. Sackett, 27, was shot in the back by a sniper after he and his partner responded to a fake emergency call May 22, 1970, at a house in the Summit-University neighborhood.
Prosecutors allege the pair killed Sackett to impress the national leadership of the Black Panthers as part of Reed and Clark’s effort to launch a St. Paul chapter of the militant organization. Both defendants have pleaded not guilty and deny that the Black Panther Party existed in St. Paul.
Trimble, who shares a child with Reed, has been at the center of the Sackett slaying since the early 1970s. She also has wavered in her willingness to help police bring Sackett’s killer, or killers, to justice.
Months after the slaying, Trimble, then 18, was indicted on murder charges after police were able to prove her voice matched that of the fake emergency caller who lured Sackett to his death.
In 1972, a jury acquitted Trimble of murder. During the trial, she admitted making the call from a nearby phone booth but denied knowing an officer would die. She also refused to say who asked her to make the call, explaining she feared for her family’s safety.
More than 20 years later, Trimble came clean to a Twin Cities television reporter. In 1994, she told the reporter that Reed was with her at the phone booth the night of the killing. Still, Sackett’s killing remained unsolved.
After another decade had passed, Trimble appeared ready to cooperate with authorities. She spoke with police in June 2004 and told them Reed asked her to make the fake emergency call, drove her to the phone booth and told her what to say, according to court records. Afterward, she and Reed drove to Clark’s house. Clark, who lived across the street from where Sackett was shot, was outside in a raincoat, Trimble told police.
Trimble said she didn’t hear or see any gunfire that night but said a thunderstorm could have obscured the noise.
The couple stayed at Clark’s house for five or six minutes and then drove to their home on Fuller Avenue, Trimble told police. Reed dropped her off.
When Trimble learned the next day an officer had been slain, she asked Reed about it. Reed responded, “What you don’t know, you can’t tell,” according to court documents.
Trimble told investigators that Reed was involved with the Black Panthers, but she said she did not believe he could have shot a police officer.
Trimble’s story appears to be a crucial part of the state’s case, according to court documents. She puts Clark and Reed together across the street from the shooting scene the night of Sackett’s killing and said Reed told her to make the fake emergency call.
But prosecutors have indicated they have several other witnesses, including a man who said Reed tried to recruit him to participate in the slaying and a federal inmate named John Griffin who said Reed confessed to the crime in the 1980s.
Shannon Prather can be reached at sprather@pioneerpress.com (mailto:sprather@pioneerpress.com) or 651-228-5452.