Judge grants third delay in start of Calderon corruption trial
Reporting from Sacramento — A federal judge has granted a third delay in the start of the corruption trial of former state Sen. Ronald Calderon, from Aug. 11 to March 1, 2016.
U.S. District Judge Christina A. Snyder approved the delay at the request of Calderon’s attorney, Mark Geragos, who said prosecutors were late in delivering a massive amount of discovery documents in the case. He also said he has a heavy trial schedule leading up to August.
The delay, approved this week, also applies to a trial on money-laundering allegations against Calderon’s brother, former Assemblyman Tom Calderon.
Ronald Calderon was indicted by a federal grand jury last year on charges of accepting $80,000 in bribes from a medical company owner and an undercover FBI agent posing as a film executive.
In requesting the delay until next year, Geragos said the U.S. attorney’s office provided more than 100,000 pages of documents as part of the required discovery process, but a month late.
“The defense believes that the failure to grant the continuance will deny Mr. Calderon continuity of counsel and adequate representation,” Geragos said in a motion to the court, adding the defense “will be deprived of sufficient time to adequately prepare” by Aug. 11.
Twitter: @mcgreevy99
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