A Couple of Docket Updates

Over the past week there's been a few updates on Harlow Cuadra and Joseph Kerekes' court dockets. I guess the most interesting one is a filing of 17 certifications of subpoenas for out of state witnesses.

08/07/2008 (17) Certification of Subpoenas Out of State filed. Luzerne County District Attorney's Office

08/08/2008 (2) Supoena Certifications filed by DA's Office Luzerne County District Attorney's Office

08/08/2008 Certificate of Judge requesting State for Attendance of Out of State Witness filed. Olszewski, Peter Paul Jr.

08/08/2008 Comm's request for Attendance of Out of State Witness filed. Luzerne County District Attorney's Office

08/12/2008 Certificate of Clerk for Attendance of Out of State Witness filed to Robert Reilly-Clerk of Courts Luzerne County District Attorney's Office

08/12/2008 Certificate of Clerk for Attendance of Out of State Witness to Tom Pizan-Deputy Clerk of Courts Luzerne County District Attorney's Office

08/12/2008 Certification from DA's Office filed. Olszewski, Peter Paul Jr.

I'm hoping to get a copy of the filings later today, and will update this post with a list of who these 17 witnesses are. Also, we should be hearing from PPO sometime this week (possibly today) in regards to answers to some, if not all of the motions that have been filed.

Harlow and Joe's Weekly Docket Round-Up

As usual, I'm posting a complete listing of docket updates for Harlow Cuadra and Joseph Kerekes that ocurred during the past week...

Harlow Cuadra:

1. 01/28/2008 Entry of Appearance by Fannick, Demetrius Wm.
2. 01/28/2008 Entry of Appearance- Atty Tim Fannick by Cometa, Thomas S.
3. 01/29/2008 Order of Court filed. Transport for Hearing on 2-20-08 by Olszewski, Peter Paul Jr.
4. 01/29/2008 Order of Court filed. Hearing on 1-30-08 continued to 2-20-08 by Olszewski, Peter Paul Jr.

Joseph Kerekes:

1. 01/29/2008 Order of Court filed. Hearing on 1-30-08 continued to 2-20-08 by Olszewski, Peter Paul Jr.
2. 01/30/2008 Def's Omnibus Pre-Trial Motion filed by Bufalino, Mark William.
3. 01/30/2008 Notice of Possible Alibi Defense filed by Bufalino, Mark William.

Meanwhile, I'm planning to post the Black's Beach Tape transcripts this week... the publication of such has been a bit more delayed than I wanted it to be, but as the old saying goes... good things come to those that wait. (Besides, 108 pages takes a bit of time to digest, not to mention having to re-transribe it all into blog capable reading).

Go Giants! ... enjoy the Super Bowl.

Harlow and Joe Misc. Docket Updates

Over the past week or so, there's been a few updates to the dockets of Harlow Cuadra and Joseph Kerekes. Probably the most notable is the release of the transcripts for the Cuadra/Kerekes San Diego Beach Tapes (hopefully I'll have more on that subject shortly).

Here's a list of the most recent updates:

1. 01/22/2008 Supplemental Brief In Opposition to def Kerekes' Motion for Bill of Particulars filed. Luzerne County District Attorney's Office

2. 01/22/2008 Comm's Brief In Opposition to Def Kerekes' Petition for Writ of Habeas Corpus filed. Luzerne County District Attorney's Office

3. 01/22/2008 Kerekes/Cuadra Tape (Day 2, San Diego, California Nudist Beach) filed.

4. 01/22/2008 Steno Record from Preliminary Hearing on 8-20-07 from Mag Tupper filed. MDJ-11-3-09

5. 01/22/2008 Steno record from Preliminary Hearing on 8-23-07 at Mag Tupper's filed. MDJ-11-3-09

DA Responds to Motions Filed by Defense

The Luzerne County District Attorney's Office filed 5 motions today in response to previous motions filed by Harlow Cuadra and Joseph Kerekes' attorneys:

12/20/2007 Motion to Amend the Information filed.
12/20/2007 Comm's Answer to Def's Motion for Continuance filed.
12/20/2007 Comm's Answer to Def Kerekes Motion to Compel Bill of Particulars filed.
12/20/2007 Comm's Brief In Opposition to Def Kerekes Motion for Bill of Particulars filed.
12/20/2007 Comm's Answer to Def's Motion for Extension of Time filed.

I'm still in the process of getting a little more information as to what exactly the motions/answers filed state... and will post this as soon as it's received.

The Upcoming Status Conference

With Harlow Cuadra and Joseph Kerekes' status conference coming up on 12/21/07 @ 8:30 AM, I thought I'd compile a list of motions that have been filed by all sides... to which we should finally get some answers:

Motions filed by/for Joseph Kerekes:

Motion for Enlargement of Time (basically to extend the trial date)

Motion to Compel Comm's response to Def's Request/Bill of Particulars & Rule filed. (The defense basically wants to know why the Commonwealth Attorneys Office hasn't turned over all of the Bill of Particulars).

Motions filed by/for Harlow Cuadra:

Initial Pretrial Motions filed. (These are requests to have more time to file pre-trial motions and postpone the March trial date.)

Motions filed by/for the Commonwealth Attorneys Office:

Notice of Comm's Intention to Seek Evidence of Other Crimes of the Def under Rule 404b filed (the district attorney’s office wants to be able to tell jurors about Cuadra and Kerekes’ alleged attempts to provide false alibis to deflect blame in the case).

The prosecution also wants to be able to present evidence about Harlow Cuadra and Joseph Kerekes’ business dealings during their trial. “Specifically, the evidence of the defendants’ male escort and pornography business clearly shows and demonstrates that both defendants viewed Cobra Video, the company owned by the victim, as their main rival and their whole object was to form a plan to rub out Bryan Kocis and secure the services of Sean Lockhart, the star of Cobra Video.”

They also want to prevent Cuadra and Kerekes’ attorneys from telling jurors about Kocis’ 2001 arrest for having sex with a 15-year-old boy he met online.

And finally... the prosecutors want the judge to postpone all matters in the Kocis homicide case until attorneys from outside the public defender’s office are appointed to represent Harlow Cuadra.

Extension of Time Hearing on 12-21-07

Judge Peter Paul Olszewski Jr. has filed an Order of Court for an Extension of Time Hearing on 12-21-07, this is also the same date as the Scheduling Conference. Harlow Cuadra's counsel filed motions yesterday asking for an extension of time (see story below), so we should have answer to that motion then.

Update 4:40 PM: The hearing for Harlow Cuadra to be appointed new counsel will be heard on 12-21-07 as well. Looks like the Judge is going to lump everything together. Should make for an interesting day to say the least.

Cuadra's Docket Updates

Well it isn't a ruling on the conflict counsel motion, but at least something's finally happening on Harlow Cuadra's side:

12/03/2007: Initial Pretrial Motions filed by Cometa, Thomas S.

Update (5:53 PM): The motions filed are a request to have more time to file pre-trial motions and to postpone the March trial date.

Docket Updates for Joseph Kerekes

There are several updates to Joseph Kerekes' docket today... and they're listed as follows:

1. 11/29/2007 Motion for Enlargement of Time & order filed.Hearing on 12-21-07 Olszewski, Peter Paul Jr.


2. 11/29/2007 Motion to Compel Comm's response to Def's Request/Bill of Particulars & Rule filed. Hearing 12-21-07 Olszewski, Peter Paul Jr.


3. 11/29/2007 Brief In Support of Def's Motion to Compel Comm's Response to Bill of Particulars filed. Nocito, Frank William

So far... nothing new for Harlow Cuadra.

Harlow and Joe's Dockets Updated Today

Update 11/23/07 @ 12:27 PM: The Times Leader has picked up the story, and basically reiterates what was mentioned in the previous update, one bit of new information though is that "the prosecutors want a judge to postpone all matters in the homicide case until attorneys from outside the public defender’s office are appointed to represent him" [Cuadra].

Update 11/23/07: The motions filed by the DA this past Wednesday was for the following reason:

The DA says the public defenders should not represent Cuadra because of a conflict of interest. Attorneys Al Flora and Jonathan Blum previously represented Bryan Kocis and might be called to testify at the Cuadra/Kerekes trial. Flora and Blum are public defenders, creating a conflict of interest.

If you recall, the public defenders office previously presented this motion to Judge Mark A. Ciavarella, Jr. on 10/12/07.

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Both Harlow Cuadra and Joseph Kerekes' dockets have been updated today:

1. 11/21/2007 Comm's Motion to Disquaify PD's Office to Represent Def-Harlow Cuadra filed by Luzerne County District Attorney's Office

2. 11/21/2007 Comm's Brief In Support of Motion to Disqualify PD from Representation of Def-Harlow Cuadra filed by Luzerne County District Attorney's Office

I'm trying to find out exactly why these motions were filed, as I'd prefer to not speculate. Not sure I'll get an answer until Friday, but here's to keeping my fingers crossed.

Quick Update

Joseph Kerekes' court docket was updated today:

11/15/2007 Sealed Oder filed by Judge Olszewski IN SAFE

Unfortunately... since the order is sealed, we'll have to wait to see what it is.

Docket Update for Harlow & Joe...

These motions were just filed by the DA's office against Harlow Cuadra & Joseph Kerekes this afternoon:

1. 11/06/2007 Comm's Omnibus Pretrial Motion filed. Luzerne County District Attorney's Office
2. 11/06/2007 Notice of Comm's Intention to Seek Evidence of Other Crimes of the Def under Rule 404b filed Luzerne County District Attorney's Office
3. 11/06/2007 Comm's Motion In Limine filed. Luzerne County District Attorney's Office
4. 11/06/2007 Comm's Brief In Support of Omnibus Pretrial Motion filed. Luzerne County District Attorney's Office
5. 11/06/2007 Comm's Brief In Supportof Comm's 404b Motion filed. Luzerne County District Attorney's Office

Joe's Docket Updated

Joseph Kerekes' court docket has been updated today with the following entries:

1. 10/29/2007 Def's request for Bill of particulars filed.
2. 10/29/2007 Def's Request for Bill of particulars under Rule 572 filed.
3. 10/29/2007 Certificate of Service

So far all of these filings are procedural matters done in every case. They really do not reveal anything. All it is is the defense asking for specific details, like the time of death, and such. It helps them prepare their pre-trial motions. Those often include more additional details of the case. It's interesting to note however that there hasn't been any activity filed on Harlow Cuadra's behalf since 10/18/07.

Note: This post originally reported that Harlow's docket had updated as well, and that was incorrect. I apologize for the error.

Additional Motions...

These were added overnight to Joseph Kerekes' docket (there are no new updates to Harlow Cuadra's docket), the rulings were done by Judge Olszewski on 10/04/07 during the formal arraignment:

• Extra 30 days to file discovery & pre-trials granted
• Motion to consolidate granted