This morning, Shawn Patrick Woodruff, the 27-year-old Croswell man accused of the intentional hit-and-run death of Ben Green on August 8, appeared before Sanilac County District Judge Gregory Ross via Zoom from the county jail next door.
Gerry Mason, Woodruff’s attorney, appeared from the jail with him, requesting alongside prosecutor Brenda Sanford for an adjournment of today’s proceedings, as the amount of information recently made available to both lawyers is substantial, one of them noting that it was a “voluminous discovery” and would require more time to go through than they had had before today’s conference.
Having met with them in chambers already, Judge Ross agreed, asking Woodruff if he was willing to waive the timeline requirements as set down by Michigan law in regards to a suspect’s rights to a speedy trial. Michigan law requires that a probable cause conference must be held no more than 14 days after the arraignment, with the preliminary exam needing to be held no more than 7 days after the probable cause conference.
With Woodruff’s arraignment having been August 11th, those time requirements would limit time for both sides to develop a solid case from the evidence, as it’d force them to accomplish that task by this Thursday, August 25th, a mere two days from now. Woodruff willingly waived those requirements, opening the door to an adjournment of the conference until next Tuesday, August 30th, at 1:30 p.m.
During that probable cause conference, Prosecutor Sanford intends to present testimony from a witness related to the case. The preliminary examination has been tentatively rescheduled to Tuesday, September 13th, also at 1:30 p.m., as Woodruff’s lawyer was due to be out of town on the originally proposed day of September 6th.
During Woodruff’s arraignment almost two weeks ago, he was charged with open murder, reckless driving causing death, failure to stop at the scene of an accident when at fault causing death, witness intimidation, assault with intent to do great bodily harm, and misdemeanors including moving violation causing death, aggravated assault against a witness and failure to report an accident, as well as notice as a habitual offender, fourth offense.
