HAMPTON, Va. (WAVY) – A trial date of November 7 has been set for Cory Bigsby, the father of a 4-year-old child reported missing in Hampton on January 31.
Bigsby is scheduled to go to trial by jury on 30 charges, including child neglect and child abuse, all of which are unrelated to the actual disappearance of his son, Codi.
WAVY News was in court Tuesday for a hearing that was supposed to set bond. This would have been the sixth request for bond. But Bigsby’s attorney, Amina Matheny-Willard, withdrew that request because the attorney who was supposed to argue it came down with COVID-19.
Bigsby appeared in court on TV from the jail. His attorney said he’s lost about 50 pounds since being in custody.
During the hearing, Matheny-Willard asked for all statements Cory Bigsby has made to police involving the case be suppressed. That would mean anything Bigsby said to police could not be used against him because he was under duress. The judge said the exact statements in question need to be identified. It also means at least 30 police officers may be called by Bigsby’s legal team, which Hampton Commonwealth’s Attorney Anton Bell said would create a circus.
“He made statements to literally everybody, so we are going to have everybody come into court to be prepared to… it’s going to be a circus. To basically have everybody come into court where there has been no statement of law concerning what has been violated,” Bell said.
After the hearing, Matheny-Willard told WAVY, “He was trying to find Codi and he went there to find Codi. He was definitely under duress because they started questioning him about any and everything in his life and they had multiple, you heard the commonwealth’s attorney say 30 people questioning him.”
Matheny-Willard states her client went to the Hampton Police Department to help in efforts to find his missing son and ended up in jail with his constitutional rights violated.
“What the Commonwealth did was use his ‘innocence’ statements to come up with these charges, that is our position,” Matheny-Willard told Judge James Hawks.
There are 30 charges including child abuse and neglect not related to Codi’s actual disappearance.
Hampton Commonwealth’s Attorney Anton Bell called Matheny-Willard out for using the phrase ‘innocence statements.
“And there is no such thing as innocence statements,” said Bell. “A statement is a statement. The question is did he make a statement against his constitutional rights?”
Bell told the court they have provided statements Bigsby made to police officers, and will not use any statements he made after he requested a lawyer, and none was provided.
Matheny-Willard indicated they will go after every detail of the investigation into Cory Bigsby.
“We are asking for the commonwealth to prepare all the statements made, and all the property seized.”
Judge James Hawks later asked Bell if they have turned over all of Bigsby’s statements.
“Absolutely,” Bell answered immediately.
Judge Hawks then told Matheny-Willard the burden rests on her defense team to identify those statements that are in question and put those statements into a motion to suppress.