For those who may be interested the court hearing was unremarkably unproductive.  Judge was unprepared.  New Public Defender was unprepared.  Delay.  Delay. Delay.  Nothing accomplished other than to set yet another court hearing...down the road.

Well attended by John's supporters.  "Victim's" family was  there as well.

A bit of fun when the judge asked Stuart for his birthday, and he said well that would be hearsay. 

Defense council said he just got this case Weds.  and has been unable to gt the notes from the old public defender, J. Johnson.  Can';t get him to return his calls. 

The judge said the last date was April 3rd, so she had a problem with scheduling a 30 day delay.  Then there was a discussion about this case being designated a complex case... A recalculation by the court staff created a August 1, 2010 date for th complex designation.  SO a new hearing was scheduled for Judge Cortez's courtroom (East Building room 711) at 8:30am, on March 29.

I believe this is an judicial error as while this case was designated complex at one point it reverted back to simple at some point thereafter. 

The public defender drew the judge's attention to a motion filed by Mr. Stuart to act for himself as pro per filed on Feb. 4.  He requested Mr. Stuart be free to travel to Los Angeles to attend a class that would help him defend himself in trial the first week of March.  The prosecutor agreed to give an answer Monday, but the judge said the defense council would also have to gt the response from pretrial services (which monitors Stuart's electronic monitoring bracelet) before sh would rule on the request.  That sounded suspiciously like a way to say "no" to me.  'Sorry we can't possibly reply until April.'

Defense council also requested an Amicus brief filed by a third party that was removed from the record be replaced within the record. 

Ajourned.

http://reason.com/archives/2009/11/09/absolute-immunity-on-trial

It will be interesting to see if the new PD even shows up on Friday. Will the courts require John to determine his representation without having ever met or spoken to the new PD? If he accepts the PD, will the courts try to forbid him from firing them and going pro-per in the future?

As John says, how can anyone make decision when you can't tell what rules the court is going to follow if any?

I just want to know will John go pro se, or leave it up to a new PD who can't make time for his client?  I am guessing this will be a question expecting an answer soon.

I spoke with John earlier. I gathered that the state has set him up with a potential new public defender, I gathered that John is really eager to meet this individual for the first time but this individual has been too busy to do so.

I also gathered that John is in some confusion as to what's supposed to take place at Friday's hearing given the above.

It seemed that John still wants to know what rules and procedures the court intends to follow since to date, they have behaved in a "make it up as you go along" manner.

This leaves John in limbo because a previous court ruled that John could file no motions, no papers whatsoever ON HIS OWN BEHALF, and the issue of a new public defender being appointed by a new court might put him in jeopardy of this. Therefore I gather he has not filed anything recently.

As to Powell's commentary that John's charges against (a slew of named individuals) hold water, you really should read the filings. John is as rambling as I am on paper but he makes a really damn good case it it's core.