Speaker Mike Hubbard’s trial for 23 counts of ethics violations has been delayed until March 2016.
Judge Jacob A. Walker granted the motion for continuance during a motions hearing Monday morning, Aug. 17 at the Lee County Justice Center.
Hubbard, R-Auburn, was indicted by a Lee County grand jury on Oct. 20, 2014.
Prosecutors claim Hubbard used his office as head of the Alabama Republican Party and Speaker of the Alabama House of Representatives to illegally benefit his businesses Craftmaster Printers and the Auburn Network.
Defense attorneys argued at the Monday hearing that the 2.5 million electronic files turned over to them by the prosecution was a data dump, and it would be until early in the summer of 2016 until they were ready for a trial.
“The goal [of the prosecution] seems to be to make it as burdensome as possible, and as expensive as possible for this citizen, Mr. Hubbard,” said defense attorney Augusta Dowd.
As an example of the files the defense said they received, defense attorneys played a clip of a pornographic movie that showed two women dancing.
“What you’ve seen is just one of the things like this given to us,” Dowd said.
Prosecutors said the defense has had at least 6 months to review the evidence.
“We’re running into the farcical,” said special prosecutor Matt Hart.
Both sides agree to have a neutral technical specialist be appointed to mediate the dispute over the amount of data turned over.
The motions hearing will continue this afternoon and Tuesday to hear other motions on the case, including motions alleging prosecutorial misconduct and the constitutionally of the ethics law, which was passed after Hubbard was elected as Speaker of the House in 2010.
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