The defendants in the case involving the indictment of four Decatur County deputies filed a joint motion Wednesday to certify the case as complex and reschedule the trial date.
Wiley Griffin, IV, Elizabeth Croley, Robert Wade Umbach and Christopher Kines are involved in an incident stemming from BikeFest 2012 where a civilian, Ronnie Aaron Parrish, was allegedly beaten, resulting in the case being allegedly covered up in incident reports.
All four of the indicted were working under the authority of the Decatur County Sheriff’s Office.
The original trial date of Jan. 5, 2015, has now been postponed until May or June 2015 by order of the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Georgia at the time.
“Defendants anticipate the filing of numerous pretrial motions as a result of the investigation they are conducting,” the motion reads. “Defendants anticipate some of the motions will be related to discovery and factual issues for trial, and other motions issues arising form the conviction of Mr. Parrish in the Superior Court of Decatur County.”
The defendants in the case submitted because the case was “so unusual (and) so complex, due to the number of defendants, the nature of the prosecution, (and) the (potential) existence of novel question of fact or law,” it was unreasonable to expect the defendants to be prepared for the original trial date.
The motion continues to say for these reasons, the court agreed to continue the case from January 2015, certifying it as “complex” for purposes of the Speedy Trial Act.
Though U.S. District Court Judge W. Louis Sands had not officially signed off on the order by publication time Friday, it is expected he will.