DOJ-OGR-00021999.jpg
Extracted Text (OCR)
Case 1:19-cr-00830-AT Document 22 Filed 01/28/20 Page2of3
January 28, 2020
Page 2
Government also produced 3500 material for every individual interviewed during the investigation
in December, nearly four months in advance of trial.
“Whether or not to adjourn a trial date is traditionally within the discretion of the trial
judge.” United States v. Scopo, 861 F.2d 339, 344 (2d Cir. 1988) (internal quotations omitted).
While there “is no mechanical test with respect to requests for a continuance or adjournment,”
United States v. Al Fawaaz, 116 F. Supp. 3d 194, 210 (S.D.N.Y. 2015), the Second Circuit has
identified certain circumstances in which an adjournment may be appropriate: (1) the requested
delay is of a short (or at least fixed duration); (2) the sought-after evidence is specified with
particularity; (3) the proposed evidence is critical to the defense; and (4) the defendant has not
been dilatory. /d. at 211 (summarizing considerations found in United States v. White, 324 F.3d
814, 814-16 (2d Cir. 1963)).
None of the circumstances identified in A/ Fawaaz necessitate the lengthy adjournment
requested by the defendants. The Government’s case-in-chief turns on a brief, fourteen-hour
window for which the evidence is limited and now available to the defendants. Moreover, even as
expanded to include all of the additional material produced as described above, the discovery in
the instant case is neither unusually voluminous nor complex, and the defendants provide no
specific reasons why the review of the materials requires a six-month adjournment.
Nor does the need to file pre-trial motions and interview witnesses support such an
adjournment. Thomas’s counsel has indicated that he intends to file a motion to dismiss the
indictment, while Noel’s counsel states that he has not been able to determine what motions to file
pending his review of the discovery. Noel’s counsel, however, identifies no reason to believe such
a review is likely to result in the identification of any potential pre-trial motions: as counsel is
aware, the Government did not obtain any search warrants as part of its investigation, nor did the
defendants make post-arrest statements that the Government would seek to introduce into
evidence. As such, there is no evidence for the defendants to seek to suppress. As for the motion
to dismiss, which does not depend on a review of the discovery, counsel for Thomas identifies no
reason why such a motion could not be made in short order.
Finally, with respect to the need to interview witnesses, as noted above, the Government
has already produced all of the witness statements in its possession, almost all of them on
December 31, 2019, nearly four months before trial. As the Court is well-aware, such productions
of witness statements are typically made only weeks before trial is scheduled to begin. As such,
the Government’s early production of those materials—giving the defendants months of additional
time to review those statements and take any potential investigation steps based upon them—
cannot possibly merit a lengthy postponement of the trial date.
DOJ-OGR-00021999
Extracted Information
Document Details
| Filename | DOJ-OGR-00021999.jpg |
| File Size | 984.3 KB |
| OCR Confidence | 95.1% |
| Has Readable Text | Yes |
| Text Length | 3,138 characters |
| Indexed | 2026-02-03 20:19:31.202273 |