By Janis Siegel, JTNews Correspondent
Defense lawyers for Jewish Federation shooter Naveed Haq are busy reviewing the 67 compact disc recordings given to them by prosecutors in the case, consisting of personal phone calls Haq made to his family from the King County jail in preparation for his retrial, whose date is yet to be set.
Since June 4, when a hung jury ended their eight-day deliberations, finding Haq guilty on just one part of one count out 20, there have been several hearings to reschedule the trial.
Judge Paris K. Kallas originally suggested a Sept. 22 trial date, but in light of the new evidence, she is now recommending a new date of January 2009, with testimony beginning sometime in February.
“All of the parties are reviewing the phone calls,” Ehrin Ehlert, one of two deputy prosecuting attorneys who argued the case in the first trial, told JTNews.
According to Ehlert, Haq had full knowledge the calls were being taped.
“All phone calls made from inside the jail are recorded,” she said. “The caller knows this because they hear a recorded message that tells them.”
Prosecutors will also be filing new charges against Haq.
“We always reconsider the charges in a retrial and ask if we should amend them in some way,” said Ehlert. “It happens in every trial with a hung jury.”
King County prosecutor Daniel Satterberg vowed to mount a vigorous and swift retrial in the Haq case due to the seriousness of the crime, which was originally charged as a hate crime, and the emotional stress on the victims, who all testified.
The trial also reminded Federation employees and the Jewish community of the horrible events of that summer day two years ago, when a beloved community organizer, Pamela Waechter, was murdered. The anniversary of the shooting on July 28,2006 is this Monday.
Lawyers have been scrambling to bring back their key experts.
Prosecutors say they can work with a January start date but the defense is asking for an extension to March 2009.
With the addition of the newly introduced jailhouse call recordings, Wesley C. Richards, one of Haq’s two lawyers, admitted they just need more time.
“I do not anticipate that [the tapes] will have all been reviewed by August 6 because of the large number of calls,” Richards told JTNews in an e-mail.
The next status hearing is scheduled for Aug. 6.