New trial date set in Ben Brewer case

Benjamin Brewer appears before Judge T. Bruce Bell on charges of trafficking methamphetamine and criminal mischief during a preliminary hearing at Fayetteville County District Court in Lexington, Ky., on Aug. 19, 2015.
Benjamin Brewer appears before Judge T. Bruce Bell on charges of trafficking methamphetamine and criminal mischief during a preliminary hearing at Fayetteville County District Court in Lexington, Ky., on Aug. 19, 2015.

UPDATE: Ben Brewer is scheduled to be tried in Hamilton County Criminal Court on Jan. 22, a judge said.

That date works best for coordinators in Nashville, Judge Don Poole announced, and attorneys will pick a jury there on Jan. 18.

Brewer faces six counts of vehicular homicide, four counts of reckless aggravated assault, one count each of driving under the influence, violation of motor carrier regulations and speeding.

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ORIGINAL STORY: A judge is reviewing trial dates in January and February for the truck driver accused of killing six under the influence in a 2015 wreck on Interstate 75 near Ooltewah.

Judge Don Poole has to run possible times past jury coordinators in Nashville since attorneys agreed to bring out-of-town jurors to hear the Ben Brewer case.

Poole said he hopes to have an update by day's end and asked attorneys to be available.

Potential dates are Jan. 22; Jan. 29; and Feb. 5.

Attorneys returned to court today to pick a new date for Brewer, who was supposed to be tried over the summer and then this fall.

But two issues popped up.

First, Brewer's public defenders said they discovered a second drug test that showed different amounts of methamphetamine in his blood.

Though prosecutors said that information was available in a public federal report, Brewer's defenders said the discrepancies went to the heart of the state's case: Whether their client was impaired at the time of the June 25, 2015, accident.

With defenders wanting time to examine the differences and out-of-town jurors primed to hear the case, Poole had little choice but to cancel the June 19 trial date.

Poole set a new trial date in September.

But defenders said they ran into another issue: Government attorneys who opposed their weeks-long effort to subpoena a federal employee to discuss the second drug test.

The government attorneys said Brewer's attorneys couldn't call a federal employee to the witness stand during trial, per long-standing administrative laws.

But they could depose the employee under oath beforehand, which is what defenders, government attorneys and prosecutors agreed to after another a hearing last month in Criminal Court.

This is a developing story. Check back later for more information.

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