Slager’s Attorneys Object to Moving Trial Date

CHARLESTON, S.C. (WCIV) — Former North Charleston police officer Michael Slager objected on Tuesday to the prosecution’s request to move the date of his pending murder trial.

Quoting Judge Clifton Newman in the argument against changing the date, Slager’s attorney Andy Savage said Slager has relied on the firm date set to prepare for the trial.

“When the trial date is set, it’s going to be a fixed trial date. It’s not going to be a moving target based on contingencies,” Newman said during a Dec. 4 hearing.

The push for a new trial date comes after Judge J.C. Nicholson rescheduled the state murder trial for accused church shooter Dylann Roof, pushing the start date from July 11 to January 17. The move was made to give psychologists time to complete a six-month mental evaluation of Roof.

“During the arguments of counsel, the State did not argue a delay in the Roof case would interfere in her ability to prosecute the Slager case. Having remained silent, the Solicitor cannot now complain,” Savage wrote in Tuesday’s filing.

Prosecutors asked Newman to either move the date up to August, or hold it off until next May.

Savage said in his response that he thought Solicitor Scarlett Wilson should hand off the Slager case to someone else in her office or seeking a longer delay in the Roof case, “in which the defendant long ago admitted his culpability and a desire to plead guilty.”

In attached emails scheduling a status hearing for Thursday morning, Wilson said federal prosecutors are “seriously looking into charging Slager,” an issue that she says could “have major ramifications in this matter.”

Wilson asked for a status conference May 13 or the following week, saying she expected to have more information by then from the federal government.

Slager was recorded shooting Walter Scott in the back several times after a traffic stop in North Charleston. While prosecutors are seeking a murder conviction, Slager’s defense team says there is missing time between the dash cam video and the cellphone video in which Scott gained control of Slager’s Taser.

The trial had been set to being on Oct. 31.