Mike Hubbard's defense team wants the trial to be delayed again, this time until August.
Bill Baxley, one of Hubbard's attorneys, said they are still receiving evidence from the prosecution, some of it as recently as Friday, and they should have gotten some of it a while ago.
"We just can't be ready for this May 9 day," Baxley said.
Lance Bell, another one of Hubbard's attorneys, said the prosecution has submitted approximately 2 million documents as possible evidence, and there is no way to be ready in May. He said he has dedicated an entire conference room to the case.
"To effectively represent Speaker Hubbard, I've got to go through all of (the documents)," Bell said. "I've got no choice."
Judge Jacob A. Walker gave the defense until noon Friday, April 22, to file a written motion to delay the trial.
The prosecution opposed the continuance.
"We've had a long pretrial slog to get here," said prosecutor Matt Hart.
However, they asked for the trial to begin May 16 to make travel arrangements easier for out-of-state witnesses. The two tentative dates for the trial to begin are May 9 and May 16.
Walker didn't rule on the request to push the trial back, or any of the other motions set before him.
The defense also argued against the prosecution's 404(b) motion, which would provide evidence of Hubbard's actions that are not necessarily illegal, but show proof of motive. Baxley said the filing has "no merit."
"They're filing stuff not under seal," Baxley said. "Some of them are frivolous ... it's aimed at tarnishing the jury pool and damaging Speaker Hubbard."
The prosecution also asked the court to exclude anything related to the defense's motions to dismiss because of prosecutorial misconduct that Walker dismissed March 29.
"We're not wanting to convince the jury that we're not criminals," Hart said. "We spent a year convincing the court that."
The prosecution said accusations of prosecutorial misconduct won't be relevant at trial because it has no bearing on Hubbard's guilt or innocence.
However, Bell said they intend to call Hart as a witness at trial.
Walker said the prosecution's motions seemed to be anticipating what the defense will bring up, and he doesn't want to cut off possible defense arguments. He said he would prefer to rule on what can and can't be brought up at trial in the moment.
Hubbard was indicted on 23 counts of felony ethics violations in October 2014. There will be another pretrial hearing at 9 a.m. on April 29.
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