Defendants in desert charter school case seek more discovery
Lawyers for two men facing charges in connection with a grand jury investigation into the now-defunct Calfornia Charter Academy, of Victorville, are seeking thousands of pages of discovery to move forward with the case.
Deputy District Attorney Michael Fermin confirmed Thursday that lawyers for Hesperia City Councilmember Tad Theron Honeycutt and the school's founder Charles Steven Cox made the request during proceedings in Victorville Superior Court.
The defense requested 11,000 pages of the more than 41,000 total pages of discovery, which generally includes evidence such reports, declarations and interviews.
Honeycutt and Cox are scheduled to return to court Feb. 26, about six months away, for a pretrial hearing, Fermin said.
The pair are charged with more than 100 felony counts of misappropriation of public money and grand theft totaling more than $5 million, in connection with the charter academy which abruptly closed in August 2004. A state- ordered audit found the misappropriation could be as much as $23 million.
The defendants were indicted by the grand jury in September 2007. If convicted of the charges, Cox faces 64 years in state prison, while Honeycutt faces 20 years in prison.
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