GREEN RIVER — Linda Malone never had permission to travel to Arkansas.
Malone, who is accused of killing her husband John Malone with a liquor bottle last September, will now have to sign off on having medical records related to her current health problems released to determine if she can return to the Sweetwater County Detention Center. She has until Friday to get that done. She’s currently on an own-recognizance bond, living in Arkansas with her brother and sister-in-law following her release from the University of Utah Hospital. According to Malone’s defense attorney, Gary Arnell, her brother and sister-in-law are her caretakers as she recovers from serious physical injuries. Malone admits she has difficulty seeing and hearing, but the Sweetwater County Attorney’s Office wants her back in Wyoming.
Sweetwater County Attorney Daniel Erramouspe said he wants the court to consider amending Malone’s bond to the $500,000 cash or surety bond that was originally in place and have her return to Sweetwater County, saying she has demonstrated how much of a flight risk she is by traveling to Arkansas without telling anyone. Erramouspe said he spoke with the detention center’s doctor, who assured him the detention center could house Malone with the limited information available to him. However, when a request to release Malone’s health information to the detention center was made, Malone denied the request. That denial led Erramouspe to question if Malone needs a competency hearing to determine if she can stand trial.
“I have no belief that that’s the case now,” he told District Court Judge Suzannah Robinson.
Erramouspe originally joined Arnell for a motion ordering a competency hearing following Milone’s apparent self-inflicted fall at the detention center in January, but wants to withdraw that from that motion. Malone was sent to the hospital following the fall, with her bond being reduced to an own recognizance bond as she was taken to the University of Utah Hospital for injuries including several broken bones and a brain injury. This arrangement is often used as protects the county and its residents from paying for the hospital bills of someone who faces criminal charges but is also recovering from severe injuries. Erramouspe said the belief originally was that Malone would require multiple surgeries and be in the hospital for about six months, not including the time she would spend undergoing physical rehabilitation.
He said the University of Utah Hospital is known for not cooperating with law enforcement and released Malone to a rehabilitation facility without informing anyone. He said she was later flown from Salt Lake City to a facility Memphis, Tennessee, where her brother picked her up. Erramouspe alleged that she made no attempt to contact Arnell and inform him of where she traveled to.
Erramouspe said Arnell lost contact with Malone, which resulted no one knowing where she was until a victim witness coordinator in his office pulled her brother’s phone number from recorded jail calls, allowing them to reestablish contact. Arnell says he knew Malone had family in Arkansas and said his office received a call from the brother, though no one took down his number. Arnell said he told the county attorney’s office that Malone has family in Arkansas, which helped it locate her.
Malone living in Arkansas appears to violate some of her bond conditions. Robinson explicitly said she never gave permission for Malone to leave the state before reading the conditions of her bond. Malone’s bond conditions include requiring her to keep contact with her attorney once a week and to notify the court and her attorney of a change of address within one business day.
The hearing was continued to next Wednesday at 8 a.m. to discuss what the medical records reveal about Malone’s health. The county attorney’s office also has the option to file a motion to revoke Malone’s bond on or before Tuesday, with Robinson holding off on the request to modify the bond. The in-person competency examination is still ordered to take place in Wyoming.
