Opinion
22-CR-00140-LK
10-30-2023
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, Plaintiff, v. JOSE LUIS CHAVEZ-RAMIREZ, Defendant.
ORDER GRANTING IN PART MOTION TO CONTINUE PRETRIAL MOTIONS DEADLINE
LAUREN KING, UNITED STATES DISTRICT JUDGE
This matter comes before the Court on Defendant Jose Luis Chavez-Ramirez's unopposed motion to continue the pretrial motions deadline. Dkt. No. 29. The motion is granted in part.
The Government charged Mr. Chavez-Ramirez with one count of Possession of a Controlled Substance with Intent to Distribute and three counts of Distribution of a Controlled Substance. Dkt. No. 1 at 1-3, 11; Dkt. No. 17 (indictment). He pleaded not guilty to all counts. Dkt. No. 22. Although Mr. Chavez-Ramirez's jury trial was originally scheduled for October 2022, he sought-and the Court granted-two continuances. Dkt. Nos. 23-24, 26-27. His trial is now set for December 11, 2023, with pretrial motions due October 30, 2023 (today). Dkt. No. 27 at 3.
Mr. Chavez-Ramirez asks the Court to extend the pretrial motions deadline to November 13, 2023. Dkt. No. 29 at 1. His counsel avers that the parties “are working toward a resolut[]ion of the charges that would obviate the need for further trial preparation or the consumption of government and court resources.” Id. at 2 (“The requested delay in the deadline would allow negotiations to run their course and likely avoid a trial or further litigation.”). The Court appreciates the parties' efforts to conserve resources and resolve this case short of trial. The proposed schedule modification, however, does not provide the Court with sufficient time to resolve any pretrial motions should settlement discussions ultimately fall through. A motion filed on November 13th would be noted for November 24th. See LCrR 12(b)(6).And with trial beginning on December 11th, the Court would conduct a pretrial conference no later than December 1st. That would give the Court just four days to resolve any pretrial motions before the pretrial conference. The parties may therefore have until November 9, 2023 to file pretrial motions.
Although the reply would typically be due Friday, November 24th, that is a court holiday, so the reply due date is automatically shifted to Monday, November 27th. See LCR 6(a); LCrR 1(a) (LCR 6 applies to criminal matters).
The Court GRANTS IN PART Mr. Chavez-Ramirez's motion. Dkt. No. 29.