Appeals court upholds lawyer’s conviction

A court of appeals has affirmed the conviction of a suspended attorney for having sex with boys.

Eric Tolen, a former assistant U.S. attorney, was convicted in September 2008 of numerous charges of statutory sodomy of a minor under 14 and witness tampering of one of his teenage boy accusers. He was sentenced to 65 years in prison.

The Missouri Court of Appeals Eastern District on Tuesday rejected Tolen’s arguments that an April 2007 search warrant was invalid because it did not describe what items could be seized except for marijuana and related paraphernalia.

While the court noted that “it is troubling” that the warrant did not list the items sought as evidence of the sexual abuse crimes with more particularity, the warrant itself was not invalid.

The court also denied Tolen’s claims that he was deprived of his right to a fair trial when the trial court failed to order that files seized in a search of his car be returned to him. Tolen argued the documents were covered under the work-product rule – they consisted of direct and cross-examination questions of witnesses and his analysis of issues in the case. The court said the work-product argument did not apply because the documents were not used as evidence.

Read more on this story in Wednesday’s paper.

The case is State of Missouri v. Eric Tolen, ED92208.