Lawyer wants Cincinnati campus cop's murder trial moved

CINCINNATI (AP) — An attorney for a University of Cincinnati policeman who fatally shot a driver he stopped over a missing front license plate is asking the court to move the officer's murder trial elsewhere.

The change-of-venue request filed today argues that Ray Tensing can't get a fair trial in Hamilton County because of extensive pretrial publicity and prejudicial comments made by several city officials and by county prosecutor Joe Deters, who called the July 19 shooting of Samuel DuBose "asinine" and said it was "without question a murder."

"Deters made multiple inflammatory, derogatory and prejudicial statements about [Tensing] declaring his guilt prior to a trial, and these statements have led to an overwhelming number of comments on social media, letters to the editor, and commentary in various forms of media that demonstrate that opinions of potential jurors have been galvanized," defense attorney Stewart Mathews said in the request.

Mathews also alleged city leaders and unspecified media outlets depicted Tensing as guilty and promoted the idea that riots could occur if he's not convicted, creating a "cloud of doom" that might influence jurors.