Attempted murder case dismissed after parents refuse to testify against daughter

Prosecutors claim a deputy public defender crossed an ethical line when she persuaded the victims to ignore a subpoena.

“These witnesses are intentionally disobeying the court’s order,” Deputy District Attorney Hilary Heap said, moments before a judge dismissed all charges against defendant Halina Kwiatkowski.

The 21-year-old woman was accused of stabbing her father more than a dozen times and slashing her mother’s hand.

When police arrived at the family’s home in the 1700 block of Alta Drive in December, Kwiatkowski and her father were covered in blood.

After the defendant spent more than four months undergoing mental health evaluations, her parents, Anna and Mariusz, disregarded warrants ordering them to testify at a preliminary hearing.

In May, Las Vegas Justice of the Peace Eric Goodman pulled the deputy public defender, Tegan Machnich, from the case after he heard a series of recorded jailhouse phone calls between the defendant and her parents.

The Las Vegas Review-Journal has obtained a courtroom video that captured the conversations as they were played for the judge.

“If she asks for a continuance, you’re going to have another court date,” Anna Kwiatkowski told her daughter on May 4. “And they’re only allowed one continuance. And then if me and dad don’t show up again, it’s going to be dropped.”

A month later, the judge threw out the case after the prosecutor asked to postpone it a third time, saying the victims refused to answer the door when police showed up at their home.

“You guys want to wipe your hands of it,” Goodman said to Heap. “You want to put it on me in case something happens. So f–––, I’m not a coward. I’m not a coward. If it comes back on me, it comes back on me. I’m not sitting up here because I’m a coward. I have no problem dismissing it, so I’m going to dismiss it.”

Nevada law states that a preliminary hearing must be held within 15 days of the defendant’s initial court appearance, unless the defendant waives the deadline or there is “good cause” to extend the hearing.

The county’s lead public defender, Phil Kohn, said attorneys in his office never advise anyone to disobey subpoenas.

“It’s not true,” Kohn said of the allegations leveled against Machnich. Prosecutors “are just frustrated. They think they’re protecting that family. And the family wants to protect their daughter. These are really difficult cases. The DAs see one side, and we see a different side.”

It is unclear whether prosecutors will continue to pursue charges against Halina Kwiatkowski through other means. Warrants for her parents’ arrests were recalled after the case was tossed. Prosecutors indicated that the case could be taken to a grand jury, but without testimony from the victims, the charges would be nearly impossible to prove.

Clark County District Attorney Steve Wolfson said his office was “still reviewing many aspects” of the case.

In a May 3 phone call, Anna Kwiatkowski told her daughter of a proposed plea agreement that could have led to probation and mental health treatment.

She described the prosecutor as “really nice.” But by the next day, the mother had apparently changed her attitude about the deal.

“The public defender called, and she told me there’s no way you’re accepting that because it’s a bunch of baloney,” she told her daughter. “Your court date is tomorrow. Me and dad are not coming.”

She suggested that the case could be thrown out immediately, and she talked about the prosecutor in derogatory terms.

Anna Kwiatkowski also told her daughter the prosecutor had lied about the deal and said the public defender was “really good and nice.”

In court, Agnes Lexis, another deputy district attorney, explained that prosecutors would not oppose probation on a lesser felony of battery with a deadly weapon for Halina Kwiatkowski, as long as she received mental health treatment and took medication. If she completed probation, the charge could be reduced to a gross misdemeanor.

Lexis suggested that the phone calls indicated the deputy public defender convinced the victims that prosecutors had deceived them.

Machnich told the judge that was “absolutely not true,” according to transcripts of a May 19 hearing. “I would never say that.”

Goodman contemplated referring the allegations against Machnich to the State Bar of Nevada, which handles ethics complaints against attorneys.

“I have never come across this situation,” the judge said. “But there seems to be evidence that she’s overstepped the lines. And do I handle this? I mean, what is my role at this point where this information is coming out in front of me?”

As of Monday, Machnich remained “in good standing,” according to the bar’s ethics and discipline division.

With the charges against Halina Kwiatkowski dismissed, she has no obligation to undergo mental health treatment.

A series of five jail calls played in court last month reveal an emotional struggle for the parents, who are victims but do not want their daughter locked away.

“You need to go to the doctor,” Anna Kwiatkowski told her daughter in one call. “You don’t need to be locked up in prison.”

The inmate wished her father a happy birthday, and he told her he “got his present,” that she would soon be released.

If anyone asked about the attack, the mother told her daughter, say “you were having an episode. You were hearing things and you thought we were intruders.”

Repeated attempts to reach the Kwiatkowskis by phone were unsuccessful. Through a court clerk, Goodman declined a request for an interview.

Kohn said Nevada courts need a better way to handle cases that involve violent crimes and defendants who suffer from mental health problems.

“We’re trying to do our job properly,” he said. “The district attorneys are trying to do their job properly. None of us have the resources we need to do the job properly, not when it comes to the seriously mentally ill. I don’t think anybody had bad faith in this case.”

Contact David Ferrara at dferrara@reviewjournal.com or 702-380-1039. Find @randompoker on Twitter.