Judge Steps Away From Grove 16 Shooting Trial

It’s been nearly two years since retired Tampa Police Department (TPD) captain Curtis Reeves allegedly shot a man in the Cobb Theatres Grove 16 movie theater (located in The Grove shopping plaza) in Wesley Chapel, and the judge who has overseen the repeatedly delayed case to date has now officially stepped away from it.

According to Pasco County court records, Pasco Sixth Judicial Circuit Court Judge Pat Siracusa officially recused himself from the trial on July 2. No explanation accompanied the order and the case was reassigned to Judge Susan L. Barthle on July 6.

Siracusa’s recusal comes just days after he approved a motion on June 30 to delay the case from an August 24 start date until at least January of 2016.

Pasco/Pinellas Sixth Circuit Court spokesman Stephen Thompson says that the repeated delays are what ultimately led to Siracusa’s recusal.

“The case would’ve been assigned to another judge in January 2014, when (Judge Siracusa) was reassigned from Dade City to New Port Richey,” Thompson says. “Siracusa agreed to keep the Reeves case under the understanding that it would go to trial in a reasonable amount of time. It hasn’t.”

Thompson says that Siracusa had to recuse himself to focus on his new cases and that Barthle would have been the judge to take the case, initially, had Siracusa not agreed to take it.

“(Siracusa) had expressed a lot of frustration (with trial delays) on the bench,” Thompson says.

The motion in June to delay the case until January seems to have been the final straw for Siracusa. The defense indicated in its motion that it still had months of work left before it would be ready for a “non-prejudiced” trial.

Prior to the Jan. 13, 2014, fatal shooting, Reeves reportedly asked Land O’Lakes resident Chad Oulsen, 43, several times to stop texting during the previews for the matinee showing of “Lone Survivor,” a film about the U.S. war in Afghanistan, and even complained to theater management. 

Oulsen reportedly said he was texting his young daughter’s babysitter before he was shot in the chest, but this was later disproved after an examination of his phone. The bullet also hit the finger of Oulsen’s wife Nicole, who had her hand on her husband’s chest.

Judge Siracusa’s office refused to provide a comment for this story. For more info, visit CurtisReevesTrial.com.