Joshua Wade's attorney seeks a change of venue

"Scumbag!"

"Guilty as hell."

Can a man whose name prompts this kind of response from strangers get a fair trial in Anchorage?

A lawyer for Joshua Wade says no, and wants his trial moved elsewhere.

Wade, 27, has been accused of using the ATM card of Mindy Schloss, a psychiatric nurse found murdered Sept. 13 off Knik Goose-Bay Road in Wasilla. Investigators say they found a receipt from her ATM account in Wade's jacket pocket and his DNA in her car.

Wade, who was acquitted of murdering a woman in 2000, is charged with bank fraud in federal court. He has not been charged in Schloss' death.

Even so, with extensive media coverage of the case -- including dozens of anonymous, negative postings online -- he's been judged guilty in the court of public opinion, says a memo written by federal defender Mary Geddes.

The jury pool is contaminated with too many people who've decided he killed Schloss and possibly others, the memo says. Without neutral jurors, he won't have the fair trial he's entitled to.

Arguments about pre-trial publicity tainting a jury are routinely made, but Geddes argues that it's more damaging than usual in this case because of the infectious, uncensored nature of Web chatter and the instant availability of old news stories.

"The volume of publicity is unfairly prejudicial and inflammatory, and therefore a change of venue is a necessary guarantee of his right to a fair trial," the memo says.

Crandon Randell, federal prosecutor in the case, said his office needed more time to examine Geddes' argument before responding to the change-of-venue request.

He anticipated arguing that fair juries were seated for the corruption trials of lawmakers Pete Kott, Vic Kohring and Tom Anderson, despite extensive media attention.

Those defendants didn't have stories about a murder acquittal available on any computer at the click of a Web link. Wade was acquitted in the murder of Della Brown in 2000 after a sensational trial.

The sustained media coverage over a number of years deepened the negative public opinion of Wade, the memo says.

A survey of 400 people done in October by Craciun Research Group found that large numbers of Alaskans, from which jurors would be selected, know an unusual amount of detail about the case. The poll found:

• Thirty-six percent of respondents said the ATM case was related to a murdered nurse.

• Twelve percent said the case was related to a murdered woman.

• Seventeen percent cited specifics of the 2000 Della Brown case.

• Fifty-four percent connected Wade's name with past criminal activity. The Craciun study listed two pages of negative words used to describe Wade by survey respondents. They ranged from "Bad dude" to "Low-life" to "Scumbag" to names that can't be printed here.

The memo also quotes the outpouring of negative Web responses to stories in the Daily News about Wade, calling the posts modern-day letters to the editor:

"Maybe he will save tax payers money and hang himself," read one.

"You piece of crap. I wish they had the death penalty here in Alaska," read another.

"His time is coming ... guilty," read a third.

The posts "make it quite clear that community feelings about Joshua Wade run deep and are negative. Many readers assume that he is guilty of Mindy Schloss's homicide. Many assume he killed Della Brown as well," the memo says.

Aside from the ATM-related charges, Wade also faces charges for being a felon and a drug user in possession of a firearm, and for having marijuana in jail.

Police and the FBI say they continue to investigate his involvement in Schloss' disappearance and death.

Find Julia O'Malley online at adn.com/contact/jomalley or call 257-4591.