Well, court has adjourned for the day. But, we did get an update about our MIA juror.
They experienced a back injury and took medication last night that caused them to oversleep this morning. They anticipate being back in court on Friday. Though typically, Judge Kelly does not convene on Fridays in this trial, this week, we will. Proceedings will resume Friday, Feb. 24 at 9 a.m. ET.
In the meantime, Judge Kelly did get the parties to deliver some startling news about the remaining length of this trial: this could stretch until Easter.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Jason McCullough: “We give defense updates at the end of every week. When we did that two weeks ago, we anticipated approximately three weeks remaining then. That was when FBI Special Agent Dubrowski had been on the stand since Feb. 8 and we anticipated he would be off the stand that following Monday. But we entered this week with him still on the stand. It is unfortunate, but that is just where we are. As to feeling like, wow, you said my dinner was gonna be out in 5 minutes, 5 minutes ago, well, that’s kind of where we are and now we lost another day. I’d be misleading you, frankly, if I said we were down to 2 weeks now.”
That would put the government’s side of things ending around March 15.
”And that’s in the over promise, under deliver spirit and that’s what we’re looking at with the length of cross,” McCullough told Judge Kelly.
Norm Pattis, who represents defendant Joseph Biggs, said on Thursday that he expects Biggs will testify and when he does, it will likely take a week.
Nick Smith, for Ethan Nordean, said he expects his client could be on the stand for four to five days. Carmen Hernandez, for Zachary Rehl, said it could take no more than four days, but she also has a lengthy number of other witnesses she wants to call. Nayib Hassan for Henry Tarrio told Judge Kelly it might take three days for their group, ‘unless the government keeps scaring off witnesses.”
As of Thursday, it was not clear how much time is required for defendant Dominic Pezzola. But after weighing the attorneys’ input, Judge Kelly said it sounded like at least 2 to 3 weeks for the defense. That is in addition to the 3 weeks estimated by the prosecution.
