Police Checkpoint On Trial

As previously reported, the final pretrial conference in my nine year running civil rights lawsuit against several Tohono O'odham police officers for conducting an illegal checkpoint operation in December of 2002 was held on March 19, 2012.

The conference was fairly short lived and primarily consisted of setting various deadlines for remaining motions, jury instructions and reviewing schedules for trial.

Defense counsel wanted to present oral arguments on whether or not officer training (or lack thereof in this case) regarding the conduct of suspicionless checkpoints could be presented at trial, claiming that such evidence would be prejudicial to his clients. His request was deemed untimely however in lieu of an In limine hearing to be held in May.

After reviewing everyone's availability, a date for trial was set for June 11, 2012 at 0900 at the U.S. District Court in Tucson, AZ. Each side has requested approximately 2 days to present their arguments indicating the trial, including jury selection, will last approximately 4 days.

A rough outline of dates associated with the upcoming trial appear below: