San Diego
Attorney Oscar Goodman on Tuesday replaced a public defender as representing Bradford Powers, who is accused of killing two Mission Bay Hospital emergency room personnel after his father died at the hospital.
Goodman, who currently represents Chris Petti in his money-laundering trial involving Richard T. Silberman, also represented San Diego Mayor Roger Hedgecock in 1985 in his second trial on conspiracy and perjury charges.
Powers, 46, of La Jolla, agreed to waive rights to a speedy preliminary hearing, which had been set for today.
San Diego Municipal Court Judge Patricia Cowett reset the preliminary hearing for Sept. 14 to give Goodman more time to prepare.
Goodman, who is privately retained, replaces Fred Small of the public defender’s office.
Powers is charged with killing nurse Deborah Burke, 36, and Edward Rooney, 30, who was in training as an emergency room technician and was there on his first day on the job April 14 when the shootings occurred.
Powers was apparently despondent over the death of his father, Bradford Powers Sr., 75, who died on the operating table earlier that day at the hospital.
He is also charged with attempted murder and assault with a deadly weapon in the wounding and near-shooting of a doctor and others in the emergency room.
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