State v. Kennedy

This is a criminal case in which the defendant’s sole assignment of error is the trial court’s failure to dismiss the case against him based upon a theory of prior jeopardy. We reverse.

Defendant was charged with the theft of an oriental rug. At his first trial, one of the principal witnesses against him was a Mr. Ewaldsen, whose testimony was crucial to the prosecution’s case in that it provided proof of both the value and the identity of the rug in question.

On cross-examination, the defense attorney immediately attempted to establish bias on the part of the witness by asking him if he had…