U.S. v. Zapata-Bazan

Full title: United States of America, Plaintiff, v. Enrique Zapata-Bazan, Defendant

Court: United States District Court, D. Arizona

Date published: Jun 17, 2008

No. 08-07218M (D. Ariz. Jun. 17, 2008)

Opinion

No. 08-07218M.

June 17, 2008

ORDER

LAWRENCE ANDERSON, Magistrate Judge

THE COURT, having reviewed the Motion to Extend Indictment Deadline, and good cause appearing,

IT IS ORDERED granting the motion and extending the time within which the government may seek to indict defendant by thirty (30) days.

THE COURT makes the following findings:

1) Counsel for defendant has only recently been appointed;

2) The defendant earnestly wishes to consider the plea offer;

3) The defendant wishes to investigate possible defenses prior to considering the plea offer;

4) The government's offer, if accepted by the defendant and then the court, would likely reduce defendant's exposure to a significant prison term;

5) If the defendant does not timely accept the plea offer prior to indictment, the government will withdraw the offer and any subsequent offer would likely be less advantageous to the defendant;

6) Failure to extend the time for indictment would thus operate to bar defendant from reviewing the offer in a meaningful way prior to indictment; and

7) The ends of justice served by this extension outweigh the best interests of the public and the defendant in a speedy indictment.

The Court therefore concludes that the ends of justice are best served by granting an extension of time to present the case to the grand jury and in excluding a period of thirty (30) days under the Speedy Trial Act. In making this determination, the Court has particularly taken into account that the failure to grant the Defendant's request "would deny counsel for the defendant . . . the reasonable time necessary for effective preparation, taking into account the exercise of due diligence." 18 U.S.C. § 3161(h)(8)(B)(iv).

IT IS ORDERED that Defendant's Motion to Extend Time to Indict, requesting an extension of thirty (30) days within which the government may seek to indict defendant, is hereby granted.

IT IS FURTHER ORDERED that excludable time shall being to run on the 31^st day after arrest for a period of thirty (30) days in which the Government may present the case to the grand jury.