VERO BEACH — Senior Judge James Midelis, appointed to take over the grand theft, money laundering and racketeering case of former attorney Ira C. Hatch declared Wednesday the trial will start May 24 and he expects it to take about three months to complete.
Defense attorney Greg Eisenmenger of Viera came into the pre-trial hearing with a motion to dismiss the entire case, a motion for a continuance of at least 45 days and a motion requesting the state provide a more specific statement of particulars.
Midelis determined that further delaying the trial of a defendant who has been sitting in jail for more than two years — in lieu of making his $3 million bond — was not warranted. “I’m denying your motion for continuance,” Midelis said. “This trial will commence on May 24 at 9 a.m.”
Eisenmenger is working the case pro bono as Hatch was deemed by the court to be indigent.
Midelis said the court, which is “very short-handed in courtroom space” had gone to great lengths to set aside a courtroom and staffing to handle the drawn-out case. He also said that summons had been sent out to 150 jurors as an initial pool.
Midelis, who was called out of retirement to handle the case after the surprise recusal of Judge Robert Hawley in response to claim by the state that he was biased, estimated it could take one month to find an impartial jury. Plans are to interview jurors separately who express a concern about serving for three months or who have specific knowledge of the case or any of its 800 victims.
“I’m directing each side to write down legibly all the witnesses and I will read them to the jury once,” Midelis said. “I don’t mind reading the 800 names, I’ll have plenty of water.”
A former prosecutor for 15 years in the 19th Judicial Circuit, Midelis brought his courtroom experience into his decisions regarding procedure, filing of documents and the wording of pleadings. He considered numerous cases brought forth as precedent by the defense, and easily interpreted the law to make his rulings from the bench.
In Wednesday’s proceedings, Midelis and the attorneys went through all 57 charges filed against Hatch, examining changes to victim names, time frames and wording of the charges. Assistant State Attorney Ryan Butler explained that the state had made required changes in new pleadings filed as late as May 4 in light of new evidence obtained from Quickbook files seized from a hard drive of a remaining computer in the office of Hatch’s former partner, attorney Kevin Doty. Those files were obtained in January.
Hatch was arrested in January 2008 after he closed his firm Coastal Escrow Services on Sept. 4, 2007, allegedly leaving depositors without access to approximately $4.5 million in funds held in trust with Hatch. The former principal of the law firm Hatch & Doty, 61-year-old Hatch worked with many local Realtors and attorneys and handled about 10,000 transactions during the more than three-year period being scrutinized by the court.
The amount of money lost by each victim ranges from a $1,000 in rental security deposits to estates of more than $1 million.
The matter was investigated by the City of Vero Beach Police Department, whose detectives collected a “small warehouse full of evidence” during the three-month investigation and from subsequent complaints.
