Cochran finally had her day in court in [May] 1990, but she felt her case was doomed from the start when her attorney resigned a week before opening arguments to accept a job with the state Attorney General’s office [Shuman also arrived in court to testify for Paul Pollard.] A stand-in from the same firm was not as familiar with the case, and the jury overheard Pollard mention the results of his polygraph tests, even though the judge did not allow them as evidence. The jury also did not hear key testimony about Pollard’s return to the crime scene the next morning to search for the body. “That boy should have been in jail for something, but the evidence just didn’t support murder,” says Greg Stokes of Levant, the jury foreman. “That this boy would run away through the woods in the middle of February with one shoe missing and not be hiding something doesn’t make sense.” When the jury returned a verdict in Pollard’s favor, Cochran was $35,000 poorer and no closer to holding her son’s murderers accountable.
Shuman of the state police as well as Attorney General Michael Carpenter, who has agreed to review the Cochran case personally, say they welcome participation by family members in murder cases. "She's pursued avenues that we told her up-front we have already looked at [and dismissed] " says Shuman. "Paul Pollard was once a suspect, but he is not now. We're willing to consider all new evidence, though."
Not being able to understand how the jury could find Pollard not guilty after they had heard a Fire Inspector, Fire Chief and a Maine State Police Corporal's testimony, I contacted the foreman of the jury after reading his name in Randy Wilson's article. Mr. Stokes told me that they believed that Pollard was guilty of something, but that my attorney didn’t do his job. He said they were not given what they needed to find Pollard guilty of Mike’s murder. He said, “Your attorney didn’t do diddly squat.” Mr. Davis had only had the case for eleven days before my trial. During the one-day trial, Mr. Davis had a difficult time locating documents he needed while questioning a witness, Mr. Glazier, Pollard's attorney, helped him out by giving him the documents.