Judges Denies Request for Delay in Holy Land Retrial

Thu, Aug 7, 2008 at 10:08:19 am PDT

The court-appointed defense attorneys in the Holy Land Foundation Hamas funding trial seem to be getting on the judge’s nerves, with a request to delay the retrial because they aren’t getting their money quickly enough: Judge denies request for delayed re-trial in Holy Land case.

A federal judge has denied a request by defense attorneys in the Holy Land Foundation terrorism financing case who asked that next month’s re-trial be delayed.

In an opinion issued Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Jorge Solis called their claim that they cannot be ready for trial because of delays in payments of their court-appointed attorneys’ fees “hyperbolic and inaccurate.”

Judge Solis chastised the court-appointed attorneys in the case for waiting until late March, about five months after the October mistrial, to file their budget for the re-trial, which includes expenses for pre-trial preparation such as pay for experts and air travel.

The judge said that after they submitted their budget to him in late March, twice he had to ask them for more detail and explanations of what he thought were “unreasonable” expenses before finally feeling comfortable enough forward the budget to the circuit court for review in June.

He did not detail any of the defense expenses, which are under seal so that prosecutors cannot gain an advantage by knowing how the opposition is spending its money and preparing for trial. ...

For the first trial, court appointed attorneys have so far been paid $2.4 million, including more than $1.6 million for attorney and paralegal fees and expenses; $191,000 for expert fees and expenses; $458,700 for translator fees; and more than $100,300 for airfare. So far, about $47,000 has been paid out for the second trial, including $35,000 to defense attorneys, $6,000 for experts, and about $6,200 for airfare, the federal court clerk’s office said Wednesday.