One trial at a time -- that's how defendant Bobby Ferguson wants to roll.
A federal court filing this weekend in Detroit seeks to delay his retrial on bid-rigging charges partly because he's busy with another case in the same building, Robert Snell reports in The Detroit News. That distraction is Kwame Kilpatrick's corruption trial, which involves Ferguson as a co-defendant.
The corruption trial started in September and has faced several delays, which Ferguson's lawyer cites as reason to delay the bid-rigging retrial [due to start April 2]. . . .
Also, media coverage of the corruption trial and Ferguson's ties to Kilpatrick will make seating an impartial jury in April problematic "and very likely impossible," [attorney Gerald] Evelyn wrote in a motion filed Saturday.
Prosecutors want to proceed as planned, Snell notes.
Evelyn's request cites news coverage as a reason to reschedule:
"Allowing for some time between these two trials would allow the effects of what has been unprecedented media coverage (practically all of which has been negative towards Mr. Ferguson) to diminish. With the current schedule, jury questionnaires will be sent out directly on the heels of concluding United States v Kilpatrick. That poses significant obstacles to select a fair and impartial panel unaffected by the swarm of media coverage."
A deadlocked jury led to a mistrial in late June in the $12 million bid-rigging case against Ferguson and two others.
The jury was deadlocked 10-1 to convict, according to two jurors who spoke publicly about the deliberations. One juror identified the holdout as the lone female black juror.
