Today's Hearing

From Gumby Cascadia

Today in court, Jonathan, Nathan, Joyanna and Daniel were arraigned on superceding indictment II. I will have to compare indictments to see what is different from the last superceding. All four of them were in the courtroom with their attorneys, Nathan and Joyanna in shackles and "jail greens".

US Atty Kirk Engdall gave an update about discovery. He said 27,000 pages have been released to defendants, as well as 71 CDs, 4 DVDs and 3 cassette tapes. He said that 1000 documents related to Romania Chevrolet and UW would be released within 30 days, as well as documents and materials related to the testimony of cooperating defendants and unindicted informants.

Jonathan Paul's attorney asked for a hearing on the motion for discovery, stating that Judge Coffin had already ruled that the delayed discovery was to be released within 30 days at the last status hearing (at the beginning of June). He further stated that he is concerned with the continued use of the Grand Juries for trial preparation - a misuse of Grand juries under the law, and that he believes this is why the remaining discovery has been delayed. The other attorneys seconded this concern, to which Judge Coffin stated flippantly that everyone's rights would be reserved. No reprimand was given the US attorney's office for the delays or the misuse of the Grand Jury. A hearing was set for August 7th.

Nathan's attorney also asked that Nathan and Joyanna be allowed to be in each others' presence in their attorneys' presence. Coffin allowed that the remaining four defendants may meet with each other in the presence of their attorneys. Nathan and Joyanna have not been able to see each other outside of court appearances until this time, so this was very good news.