By Stephanie Boulos
SACRAMENTO – Sacramento County Superior Court, Department 63, Judge Patrick Marlette this week didn’t enter an official objection to a defense motion to delay a case again, but did voice his opposition. Clearly.
The judge heard Deputy District Attorney Sydne Jones’ objection to defense counsel’s overload declaration in the aggravated sexual assault of a child case filed in 2019.
The defendant, Roberto Lopez, was charged with two felonies in an aggravated sexual assault case of a child back in 2019.
After nearly six trial readiness conferences, all reset or continued since the beginning of the pandemic, conflict panel public defender David Grow declared an overload on cases in order to pass this case along to yet another attorney.
The deputy district attorney on the case said that, although they don’t often object to overload, in this specific case it seems necessary.
Judge Patrick Marlette, distraught with the case and the declaration of overload, said he hasn’t heard one word as to why these types of cases are being overloaded.
“I’m not going to make any motion,” declared Judge Marlette, “I can’t imagine I would have the jurisdiction to order the public defender to try a case you’re not prepared to try.”
Judge Marlette then said he would be objecting to letting any other attorney take this case, adding, “I’m not going to sit by and ignore the statutory presumptions for this case.”
A hearing on the DDA objection to the PD overloading on the case is scheduled for June 4 at 8:30 a.m.
I’m a second year Political Science and Philosophy major at UC Davis from SoCal, hoping to pursue a career in law!
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