Jefferson County Attorney Mike O’Connell appears to want the celebrity of a high-profile prosecution.
How else to explain the 74-year-old Democrat’s contentious and seemingly absent-minded behavior in front of Jefferson District Court Judge Anne Delahanty yesterday.
Scheffler’s lawyer, Steve Romines, was not consulted on the initial May 21 court date and thus asked for a two-week delay. O’Connell, though, bizarrely objected to the motion and repeatedly cited a Kentucky Supreme Court ruling related to remote appearances only being acceptable “when appropriate.”
Yet, Scheffler, via Romines, was not arguing for a remote appearance, only a delay.
A frustrated Judge Delahanty finally said, “Maybe I’m confused. I feel like he (Romines) is just asking to move the arraignment, not to make his client not here.”
“Correct, that’s correct, judge,” Romines said. “If we haven’t resolved the case by June 3, he’ll be here with me in court.”
O’Connell said, “Well, I object. I think we need to get the arraignment done.”
Then O’Connell, once again, repeated the issue related to Scheffler’s appearance in court.
“The rule says that if you are charged with a felony, you are to be present in arraignment and in all stages of the proceedings,” O’Connell said.
“I made the motion, they’re objecting,” Romines said. “He keeps referring to ‘when appropriate’, which is specifically referring to remote appearance. There’s nothing inappropriate regarding moving a court date. It happens every day. So when Mr. O’Connell says, ‘we don’t want to treat him differently,’ Then go through and look how many cases are agreed to by continuance by the county every day. They are absolutely treating him differently, and they have no basis for it.
“He keeps referring to ‘when appropriate’. That language does not refer to motions to continue, it refers to remote appearance, and we’re not asking for that judge.”
In the end, the judge ruled in favor of the delay, stating that Romines had not been consulted or advised about the date despite being Scheffler’s attorney.
Scheffler’s arraignment is scheduled for June 3 at 9 a.m., according to court records. The Memorial Tournament tees off in Dublin, Ohio June 6-9.
