CHULA VISTA (KGTV) — New efforts are underway to postpone the highly anticipated trial of Maya Millete, which is set to begin next month. Attorneys for her accused husband, Larry Millete, are now arguing he cannot receive a fair trial.
In a 29-page motion filed last Friday, Larry Millete's attorneys accused the deputy district attorney Christy Bowles of misconduct.
WATCH | We spoke with a San Diego-based criminal defense attorney who is not connected to the case about the allegations of misconduct against the prosecution
The defense is now asking the deputy district attorney to step down, which could mean the Attorney General's Office would have to take over.
The case surrounds Maya Millete, a Chula Vista mother who mysteriously disappeared back in January 2021. Her body has never been found.
At one point in the case, Bowles' brought in a Chula Vista detective to testify about an alleged affair that Maya Millete was having. According to page four of the filing, Larry Millete's attorney accuses Bowles of "eliciting false testimony, deceiving the honorable judge, and admitting evidence she knew to be illegal."
ABC 10News reached out to Gretchen von Helms, a San Diego-based criminal defense attorney at Ronis & Ronis who is not connected to the case. Von Helms has been practicing law for more than 30 years at both the federal and state levels and is an expert in the area. She weighs in on this 11th-hour filing.
"To accuse the district attorney's office of malfeasance or prosecutorial misconduct, which is what happened in this case, it is very unusual to do that," Von Helms said. "The defense attorneys are alleging that the prosecutor put five witnesses on and that the prosecutor knew those witnesses were testifying falsely. So that would be called suborning or getting perjury from witnesses."
Von Helms added, "They are very serious allegations."
Von Helms said that, if granted, this could be the defense's strategy for delay, because a new prosecutor would need to take on the case. When asked whether a motion like this could delay the trial by at least a year, or even longer, she agreed.
Von Helms said the judge, who is the Honorable Dwayne K Moring, will have to decide on this motion filing by the end of next week. That is just over a week before jury selection is scheduled to start.
Von Helms said the judge will decide whether the deputy district attorney is still the right person to handle this case.
"The penal code by which they filed this motion is Section 1424," Von Helms said. "In that case, it says that the motion may not be granted unless the evidence shows that a conflict of interest exists, which would render it unlikely that the defendant would receive a fair trial. So that's due process. So the judge is going to look at, is this the right prosecuting agency to serve in this case, or does the evidence show that they engaged in some sort of misconduct and that that misconduct would then prevent the defendant in this case from receiving a fair trial."
The District Attorney's Office called the filing another maneuver to shift the focus from the murder of Maya Millete:
"This is another maneuver by the defense to shift the focus from the murder of Maya Millette to baseless attacks on the DA team, which is seeking justice for Maya. The DA’s Office will be filing a response and will litigate this fully in court."
