Earlier, Fitial, 24, through his court-appointed defense lawyer Joseph James Norita Camacho, filed a motion to continue trial.
Judge WM. Fremming Neilsen of the Washington Eastern District Court, who presided over yesterday’s telephonic pretrial conference and motion hearing, granted the defendant’s motion to waive speedy trial.
Assistant U.S. Attorney James J. Benedetto, the prosecutor, said the federal government is not opposing Fitial’s waiver.
Neilsen vacated the jury trial for Dec. 6, 2010, and set a new trial date for Feb. 7, 2011.
After the prosecution filed a superseding indictment against the defendant on Sept. 23, 2010, Fitial through Camacho requested the court for additional time to prepare a defense to the additional charges.
Camacho told the court he would be unavailable this month.
The prosecution did not oppose the defense’s request to reset the trial date “due to the fact that the government is seeking to retain an expert witness to testify in the trial.”
Benedetto filed a superseding indictment against Fitial for two counts of deprivation of rights under color or law, and one count of enticement of a minor.
Fitial has denied the charges. He has been in custody after the Federal Bureau of Investigation arrested him on June 11, 2010.
In renewing Fitial’s motion to modify bail and set conditions for pretrial release, Camacho told the court that the “right to pretrial release is fundamental.”
“There is nothing in [Fitial’s] background to suggest that he has a propensity for violence,” Camacho said.
The court, he added, may set conditions of release requiring his client “to have no contact with minors, with the possible exception of his five-year-old son.”
Camacho said Fitial is not dangerous.
“It is now the government’s burden to show that the defendant possess a propensity for violence or that he has a history of violence,” Camacho told the court.
Camacho said Fitial’s mother and his partner were suggested as third party custodians of his client.
Camacho said Fitial will be staying at his mother’s house in Kagman and will “have his own room.”
Camacho said Fitial’s “release should not be denied on grounds of risk of flight or dangerousness.”
Camacho said: “It is the prosecution’s burden to show by a preponderance of the evidence that no terms or conditions are likely to ensure the appearance of” Fitial in court hearings.
