Judge Refuses to Delay Strohmeyer Trial

Attorneys for the Long Beach teenager accused in the sexual assault and murder of a 7-year-old girl in a Nevada casino failed Tuesday to persuade a judge to delay next week’s trial.

“This case is over 14 months old,” District Judge Myron Leavitt said. “The state has a right to a speedy trial too.”

Jeremy Strohmeyer, 19, is accused of the May 1997 sexual assault and strangulation of Sherrice Iverson in a restroom at the Primm Valley Hotel in Primm, 43 miles southwest of Las Vegas.

Leavitt also refused to reassign the case to another judge. Defense attorneys suggested that the case was not correctly assigned after the original judge, Don Chairez, resigned to run for Congress.

Leavitt, who is running for the Nevada Supreme Court, inherited the case. Defense attorney Richard Wright argued the trial should be continued until after the Nov. 3 election because it was a potential conflict of interest for Leavitt.

Wright and defense attorney Leslie Abramson also argued that they were not prepared for Monday’s trial because of the Nevada Supreme Court’s ruling Friday that the jury will be able to see the contents of Strohmeyer’s computer. The court reversed an earlier decision by Chairez.

The defense said it has not had access to the computer evidence and would need time to sort through it.

Prosecutors countered that the defense has been given numerous opportunities to look through disks and computer files that apparently contain child pornography and Strohmeyer’s correspondence in an Internet chatroom.