JeffCo Trio Seek Trial Delay

The three men indicted in a Jefferson County sewer bond pay-to-play criminal case are seeking a second delay in their trial date because the case is complex and they haven’t had time to sift through all the discovery evidence, they said in a joint motion last week.

Trial currently is set for Aug. 31 for former county commissioner Larry Langford, now mayor of Birmingham, who was named last December in a 101-count federal indictment on charges that include conspiracy, bribery, and fraud along with Montgomery bond dealer William Blount and lobbyist Albert LaPierre, a friend of Langford and Blount.

A federal judge already delayed the original trial date, which was May 4, when the case was declared complex. But after receiving two rounds of discovery evidence described as a total of more than 730 gigabytes from the prosecution, the defendants said this week they don’t have enough time or financial resources to “provide an adequate defense.”

The judge has not ruled on their request for the trial to be delayed until November.

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