The long delay between today's hearing and the next appearance is very odd- especially as the judge saw fit to uphold the prosecutor's objection to the pilot being allowed to return to the UK in the meantime. It appears from reports that the prosecutor objected to bail at all, so no doubt the pilot is grateful for small mercies.
This appears to have been a lower court, equivalent to our magistrates courts. I'd be surprised if a more senior judge insists he stays in America pending trial. However, I don't know much about the American criminal system - I thought it was terrible he was in jail at all, but perhaps that's the norm in America?
The most extraordinary aspect of today's hearing (based on reports I've read) is that there was no mention of what the blood/alcohol level is alleged to be.
That wouldn't necessarily be mentioned at a first appearance here, but our procedure is different. The US prosecutor called the police officer who arrested the pilot to give evidence of the cirumstances of arrest - that woudln't normally happen here.
Further, there was no mention of the results of an Intoximeter procedure at the police station (or even that it was carried out).
It's possible that blood or urine samples were taken for analysis and time is needed to obtain the lab results - but there doesn't seem to have been any mention of that being the reason for the long delay before the next hearing.
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Paulo
Anything's possible but I doubt it was a prosecution tactic to delay proecdures for the reasons you suggest.
There are delays here, but I've never heard of a case being delayed for the reasons you mention.
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BEagle
I wasn't sent one this year so nothing to forward.
