At 8.45am everyone (except the Defense and his client Lonnie Franklin), including the Prosecution, the Homicide Detective(s), the regular four victims family members, were all in their seats in the Courtroom of Dept 109, on the 9th Floor, of the Criminal Courthouse.
At 9.04am the Defense comes racing in to the Courtroom as if he's a racehorse and has just been let out of the gate to run his first race at Santa Anita..... Typically late of course.
At 9.18 Lonnie Franklin shuffled in, handcuffs and in his orange oversized jumpsuit. Escorted by the bailiff of course.
The Defense started speaking without anyone asking him to, which is typical, stating that he had only just received his 'last batch of DNA' to be tested and that he will be reconsidering whether or not he'll decide whether he needs to do any more DNA testing after that. He stated that he doesn't want to come back until December 1st as, "there would be no point as we (the Defense) still aren't ready.
The Prosecution jumped in stating that they, quite rightly so, are not willing to wait an entire month to come back to Court.
The Judge asked "Why does this (re: the delivering of evidence) 'dribble' on so slowly?"
To which the Defense started to raise his voice, as always, stating that he'd like to speed things up but it's out of his hands. He went on to say that nothing would make him happier for the process to be quicker but it's not up to him. Then who is it up to I ask myself.
"I am working very hard on this case and need the time away from the Court to increase my chances of me being ready for Trial coming up early next year"... The Defense said.
The Judge responded that she is keeping the date of November 14th for the next pre-Trial Arraignment and that is that.
Of course the The Defense argued back in his typical passive aggressive way that he will be 'willing to do that but is hesitant as it is all about a money issue right now and he's trying to stay ahead of it' however he is talking to his DNA experts continuously.
(This statement made no sense to me either).
The Prosecution stated that they have a number of large cases coming up at the beginning of the year so they need to know definitively whether the Trial date (which has been set already) will be going ahead or not.
The Defense shot back that he will probably need a 'time waiver'
It all ended within 8 minutes and we walked out at 9.26am!
Another waste of time, especially for the prosecution and the victim's family members who are doing their best to contain themselves after continuously being reminded (every Court date) of the tragic loss which they have had in their lives.
To be continued......
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