SOUTH SALT LAKE, Utah (ABC 4 News) - A handful of patrons and even some employees are sure they saw Josh Powell in their bar, Duces Wild, on Monday, December 7th -- the same day it was discovered his wife, Susan Cox Powell, was missing.
West Valley friends of the Powells say it couldn't have been Josh because he doesn't drink.
Either way, what does it matter?
The alleged sighting did not bring Susan Powell home.
As for the legal implications, ABC 4 turned to Daniel Medwed, a law professor at the University of Utah.
If Josh Powell were to ever find himself in court over his wife's disappearance, Professor Medwed said a prosecutor could use the sighting to establish Powell's state of mind. "But more importantly," Professor Medwed said, "It goes to the purported alibi that Mr. Powell has been advancing for months now -- That he was in the west desert with his kids. This directly contradicts that alibi."
However, the professor also noted that a good defense attorney would have little trouble shredding the story of Josh Powell in a strip bar.
The first problem: There is no concrete evidence. The surveillance video recordings at "Duces Wild" recycle every seven days. By the time West Valley police detectives were notified, the pictures from the Monday in question had been erased.
Next problem: There's a conflict with the timeline. The bartender at Duces Wild remembers the man identified as Josh Powell arriving at 2:00 p.m. and staying until 4:30 p.m. But Powell family friend JoVona Owings said she called Josh on his cell phone around 3:00 p.m. She believes during their conversation he was in his car, not a noisy bar. Conclusive? No, but it plants doubt in a juror's mind.
What's more, Profession Medwed said the defense attorney would attack the credibility of the witnesses from the bar. "And you know what? You might have some ammunition to discredit them. They were, after all, in this bar in the middle of the afternoon. That's not going to play well with a Utah jury." In other words, the bar is dark and people are drinking ... You can see where a defense attorney would take those facts.
Even more, he would pound away at the fact that identification of Josh Powell came only days later. Sherman, a bar patron who sat next to the man he says was Josh Powell, remembered, "When I saw his face on TV, I said, 'Where do I know this guy from?' And then it came to me that I knew him from the bar." The defense attorney could call expert witnesses who would testify such an after-the-fact identification was "unconscious transference." Professor Medwed said, "So as soon as the news broke of Susan Powell's disappearance -- ABC 4 News in particular -- it's quite possible that the patrons of the bar kind of conflated their recollection of the event with the higher profile image of the Josh Powell - Susan Powell fiasco and they merged the two."
Such a "tainted" memory, he said, "can easily unravel during a skillful defense attorney's cross examination."
