Judge Sets Speedy Trial, Bond Reconsideration Hearing for Monday in Ex-Cop Slager Case

Slager was charged with murder after law enforcement officials viewed the dramatic video that appears to show Slager shooting a fleeing Scott several times in the back.

CHARLESTON, S.C. (WCIV) — The new year will kick off with discussions of a speedy trial request and a bond reconsideration for Michael Slager, the former North Charleston police officer accused of murder in the shooting death of Walter Scott.

Judge Clifton Newman told attorneys on Tuesday to prepare for a Monday morning hearing, according to court documents. The hearing is set to begin at 11:30 a.m.

In a clarification motion filed by Slager’s attorney Andy Savage, the prominent defense attorney outlines his schedule for the week and shows that he will be in a Berkeley County courtroom on behalf of Amy Kovach, the former Berkeley County School District spokeswoman who pleaded guilty to ethics violations.

The conversation in Newman’s courtroom will likely again focus attention on a phone conversation had between Newman, Savage, and Solicitor Scarlett Wilson after Slager filed an ex parte motion seeking indigent defense funding for expert witnesses.

Savage has argued that in the call “the Court expressed concern that Mr. Slager’s ex parte petition may have triggered a disqualification of Mr. Slager’s counsel as his counsel was neither a public defender nor a court-appointed attorney.”

State law outlines a few functions of indigent defense once a defendent has met the requirements and is allowed by the judge presiding over the case to use indigent legal assistance.

In one rule, the indigent defense office provides complete legal assistance through attorney’s services and payment for those services comes from a special fund. In another, the fund provides capital for expert witnesses.

Savage said in a hearing earlier this month that Slager does not have an income and his office had spent more than $100,000 in preparing Slager’s defense already, so they were seeking indigent defense funding for the needed expert witnesses.

It’s unclear whether Savage could be pulled from the case and Slager would be assigned a public defender, but attorney and indigent defense expert Ashley Pennington said in that same hearing that his office is grateful for attorneys who step in to represent defendants pro bono.

Wilson responded to the speedy trial motion by arguing the tentative November deadline meets the speedy trial mandate, and cites the order of protection from Judge JC Nicholson, who is presiding over the case of Dylann Roof in the deadly Charleston church shootings, and South Carolina Chief Justice Jean Toal.

Wilson and her co-counselors have been protected from arguing any other cases from Jan. 1 until the conclusion of the Roof trial, which is set to begin in July.

WIlson also points to Savage’s own trial schedule as an issue in setting a date earlier than November as well as Slager’s ex parte motion that stalled the case’s progress briefly.

Wilson notes in her response that “it has been just over eight months since the Defendant’s arrest for murder in this case. If tried in November of 2016, as requested by the Solicitor, the length of time between arrest and trial will be approximately 19 months.”

Savage has said that he could be ready to argue the case in the spring.

Since his arrest on April 7, Slager has been held in an isolation unit at the Charleston County Detention Center.