Chief Judge Stark today rescheduled the Xcoal trial for Wednesday of next week. The trial was previously derailed following receipt of an anonymous letter just after opening statements.
The opinion (embedded below) has a great summary of the facts of the trial so far, which are very unusual.
In resuming the trial quickly, he hoped to deter others from sending similar "anonymous letters" to interfere with other trials. He also noted that this is the only time the Court will have available for bench trials in the near future, because of the backlog of criminal and civil jury trials which should start back this month:
[T]his District hopes and expects to resume jury trials (after a six-month hiatus due to the ongoing impact of the global coronavirus pandemic) later this month; once that occurs, it is likely that the undersigned Judge will have to prioritize preparing for and presiding over many jury trials, especially criminal trials, that have been continued over the past half year. The Court presently has a window to complete the virtual bench trial in this matter now. Finding space in the Court's calendar [later] is likely to be much more difficult.
The Court has not yet posted a new Zoom link for the trial, although it may be that the previous one will still work.
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