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Case 1:17-cr-02949 Document 306 Filed 02/06/20 Page 12 of 36
Complicating matters further is the fact that both of Mr. Robertson's initial defense attorneys have recently withdrawn from the case, and both of his current attorneys have been appointed within the past six months (one in the last three weeks). The defense team therefore has a considerable amount of catching up to do in a very short amount of time, and defense counsel need to immediately begin meeting with Mr. Robertson on a regular basis. The case is also complex and exceedingly serious. The government has named 24 witnesses on its most recent witness list [Doc. 104] and the Court has issued upwards of 30 written orders over the past three years of contentious pretrial litigation in this case. And if Mr. Robertson is convicted on all charges, he will be facing decades in prison: according to his Form 13 PSR, Mr. Robertson's effective guidelines range would be a staggering 412 to 485 months of imprisonment, or approximately 34 to 40 years. See Doc. 188 at 15.
Finally, defense counsel explained at the recent pretrial conference that it will be impossible for them to effectively prepare the case for trial with Mr. Robertson in custody under the current lockdown conditions due to COVID-19. In normal times, defense counsel can meet with their clients face to face in meeting rooms at the jails, where they can review discovery and do other critical trial preparation. Now, however, if the jails are allowing in-person client meetings at all, it is with the defendants separated from their counsel by a screen, making it nearly impossible to effectively review documentary evidence. And while defense counsel represented that the Santa Fe County Detention Center is allowing video meetings by Zoom, it is hard to schedule Zoom time due to the limited number of computer facilities at the jail and the number of parties vying for them (including this Court). Defense counsel also represented that while the Zoom meetings have been helpful, the Detention Center has not allowed them to show Mr. Robertson documents by sharing their screen, requiring counsel to instead hold the documents up to their computer's camera in the
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DOJ-OGR-00001302