“It's all because of the district attorney's office,” said Defense Attorney Steve Geringer.
Steve Geringer is the defense attorney representing Brittney Navarra. She is accused of recruiting Dustin Gran to kill 18-year old Krista Pike as part of a twisted love triangle back in January of 2008.
Since that time their case has been handed off between four different prosecutors, moved to Modesto and on Thursday a judge ruled that the prosecutor handling the case, Deputy D.A. Ed Gill, committed misconduct.
“This is almost a never ending battle,” said Geringer.
Geringer claims Gill broke the rules when he contacted one of the defense's consultants and revealed the results of a test which the consultant was supposed to conduct on his own.
“So he's tainted the water completely,” said Geringer.
A new consultant will now likely need to be found which could take several months and delay Gran and Navarra’s trials even further.
“Based upon what the district attorney's office is doing, it's costing this county additional funds,” said Geringer.
Consider this; it costs just over $28,000 a year to house an inmate in the Madera County Jail. If you multiply that cost for both Navarra and Gran over five years, it shows taxpayers have spent more than $284,000 to keep them incarcerated.
“So it's hurting the people of Madera, it's hurting the honesty of the district attorney's office, it's hurting the victims, it's hurting the alleged people and their families too. There's no closure for anyone in this matter based upon what's going on at this time,” said Geringer.
CBS7 contacted Madera’s District Attorney Michael Keitz, but he had no comment.
After all sanctions are handed down, the Madera D.A.'s Office may be excused from this case and have to turn it over to the Attorney General's Office.