The conflict hearing was conducted virtually, and Stauch appeared from a cell at the El Paso County Jail, wearing an orange jumpsuit and face mask. Gannon's father, Al Stauch, was also on the call.
The public was only present for the first few minutes of this hearing, before it went into a private session for around 30 minutes. Prosecutors were also not on the call during the conflict hearing. It was a discussion between the defendant, defense attorneys, and the court.
Then, when it was opened back up to the public, Judge William Bain said he was asked to address whether or not there is a conflict in this case. He said he will not make that decision, and will send the matter back to Judge Gregory Werner, who typically presides over the Stauch case.
Judge Bain said it will be up to Judge Werner's team to schedule another advisement. It has now been set for February 24, at 3 p.m. That will be an Arguello advisement, which local attorney Stephen Longo helped explain.
Longo said an Arguello advisement stems from a 6th Amendment case, regarding the waiver of counsel. An Arguello advisement is to ensure a defendant's waiver of counsel (whether permanent or temporary) is done knowingly, intelligently, and voluntarily. Mainly, Longo said they are used as a safeguard against an appeal if a defendant proceeds without counsel. It is not a competency issue.
Lead Prosecutor and District Attorney for the 4th Judicial District, Michael Allen, spoke with News5 following the conflict hearing. Since prosecutors were not present for the closed-door process of the conflict hearing, he could not comment on anything discussed during that time.
However, Allen did tell us what to expect in an Arguello advisement. While fairly rare, he said they happen often enough that his team knows how to handle it. The judge will ask specific questions of a defendant to make sure they understand what they are getting themselves into, by deciding to waive their right to counsel. "Any case, it's tough to represent yourself, especially a big case like this with lots of discovery. So, you'll hear questions from the judge, in all likelihood, along those same lines, as to making sure that the defendant knows what she's doing and is prepared to take that task on herself," said Allen during a Zoom call.
When Allen heard Judge Bain say the next court setting would be an Arguello advisement, it sounded to him like Stauch "is intending to represent herself. But I haven't heard that specifically from her, and she didn't say that in the courtroom, obviously when we were all present. It's just based off of the court making that representation that he would set it back to Judge Werner for an Arguello advisement, which is typically what that would be for," said Allen.
He also added it would be foolish to speculate on if this Arguello advisement means Stauch has fired her current defense team. A defendant can go through an Arguello advisement, and decide to retain counsel. "And that's why I say it's a little reckless to just speculate that there's some sort of a split, and it's absolutely going to be new defense counsel or something like that. We don't know that yet, and we shouldn't go down that speculation road too much," said Allen.
https://www.koaa.com/news/gannon-st...r-letecia-stauch-big-topic-at-next-advisement
