This is part 1 of 2 on the hearing for the Defense' Motion to Dismiss and based on the Prosecutors misconduct in delaying the trial, the judge ruled that the case be "Dismissed With Prejudice"

"This case started with an arrest, then went to (Pinkerton's previous attorney), then to a plea offer to dismiss the case entirely if he would take down his Web site and move," Hempey said.

"He says 'No' and wants his right to a trial, and he gets indicted again — and the state makes the mistake of thinking the indictment clock starts over. But it doesn't," Hempey said.

Though both the prosecution and defense agreed 148 days of the 180-day limit had been clocked when tallying Rule 48, 35 remaining days remained for Watanabe to divvy out.

At the crux of the issue was the timeline of a motion filed by Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Marc Guyot and granted by Watanabe Nov. 20, 2006, requesting a mental and penal responsibility examination of Pinkerton. Watanabe had granted the motion with a two-week deadline.

Court records show the order was filed Dec. 14, meaning prosecutors didn't meet that deadline, Hempey said. Even if they had, he argued, only half of the order had been set in motion.

That's because prosecutors had "unilaterally told (the doctor) to only do the mental portion of the examination and not do the penal responsibility section," Hempey said, deducing that a delay of Rule 48 happened "because of Marc Guyot's' prosecutorial usurpation of the court's authority."
[end of part 1 of 2]