Chunkychuck wrote:
If I remember correctly Joel's hearing was supposed to be today. Has anyone heard anything? I took my PTC class from him.
While Joel is very limited to what he can say, I'm not so much..
That being said, there are certain details that I cannot give away, just what happened in public, and my interpretation of it.
The County Atty has a murder trial, and asked for the hearing to be delayed until April 1st... The earliest the judge could do was May 2nd.
The delays have not been really on the county. Some of the delay has been intentional by Joel's atty. (Note that there has not been a motion for a speedy trial.)
The lawyers and judge were in chambers for a while, and there was a brief public hearing. I was actually optimistic. Months ago, I judged a book by it's cover... Just Todrick Barnette is a young, well-spoken, black man. Being Henn. County, I expected it to be an uphill battle with an anti-gun, progressive judge.
Judge Barnette is very intelligent, and seems to have a firm grasp on his duty as a judge of the law.
Joel's atty. called for a probable cause hearing, and the lawyers gave long-whinded summaries of why the was/was not probable cause.
Judge Barnette asked the prosecutor something to the affect of:
"so in simplest terms The city thinks that the court order applies to the 1st floor of the court house, and Mr. Gross disagrees"
Gross (joel's atty) nodded, and the county atty apologized for being long winded.
Judge Barnette then stated that he did not know the verbiage of 609.66 or the order off hand, and wanted briefs from each side by April 1st.
Then Judge Barnette made a comment to the city that impresses me.
He said something to the affect that the city needed to show that the order applied not only to the first floor, but to the entire City hall, as Joel was not in the court wing on the 3rd floor.
I gathered by his tone and demeanor, that he was pessimistic to think that the court had such authority.
This was a good thing.