A court date for Cal Harris’ federal lawsuit against Tioga County officials and state police has been postponed until the spring.
The lawsuit, which was originally filed in 2017 and was scheduled to go to trial in Utica on November 4, has been postponed until April following a request from the legal teams involved. Because the trial was originally scheduled to begin in June 2023, the trial has been rescheduled four times.
Harris, who was found not guilty of murder in 2016 after a 15-year legal saga following the disappearance of his wife Michele Harris on September 11, 2001, has accused those involved in his criminal case of malicious prosecution and civil rights violations.
The sweeping federal lawsuit points to what Harris’ legal team calls largely circumstantial evidence gathered by the prosecution, alleging that witnesses were groomed by the prosecution to give false testimony.
More: Updates from the trial against Cal Harris
Defendants include former Tioga County District Attorney Gerald Keene and Steven Andersen, the state police investigator who provided testimony about forensic evidence during the trials; and Susan Mulvey, another state police investigator on the case.
In a recent letter to the judge, Harris’ defense team, including attorneys Bruce Barket and Alexander Klein, requested that the trial start date be postponed until September 2025, citing a 13 U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit decision September, where an appeal was rejected. by Tioga County and state police representatives.
“To this end, in anticipation of the Second Circuit’s mandate,” Barket and Klein wrote in an Oct. 7 letter, “we have consulted with all parties regarding mutually available trial dates.”
Assistant Attorney General Adrienne J. Kerwin also wrote on October 8 to request a postponed deadline for pretrial filings while the court considered a new trial date.
Northern District Judge David N. Hurd rescheduled the trial to begin jury selection at 9:30 a.m. on April 28, 2025.
Harris’ legal team said they expect the trial to last “approximately a month.”
This article originally appeared on Binghamton Press & Sun-Bulletin: Cal Harris’ malicious prosecution trial postponed
