The defense attorney for a Bradenton Beach man facing a series of pornography charges and one count of witness tampering wants the trial delayed.
Joseph Edmund Chiquet of Bradenton Beach was scheduled to go to trial later this month. He is accused of possessing and promoting child pornography in a case that involved a teenage girl he met in early 2009 at a Bradenton skateboard shop.
A police report said the teenager and Chiquet had a sexual relationship, and that he took sexual photographs of her in his Bradenton Beach apartment that were downloaded to his computer.
In 2010, authorities accused Chiquet of offering ex-girlfriend Else Torres $10,000 if she told police she was depicted in the photographs and not, as prosecutors allege, the 15-year-old girl. That allegation added a witness tampering charge to the list of alleged offenses.
Chiquet has pleaded not guilty to all the charges.
His defense attorney, Mark Lipinski, in a recent motion filed at the Manatee County Judicial Center in Bradenton, made several arguments for delaying the trial.
First, Lipinski said he must prepare to defend Chiquet in three separate cases.
Second, Lipinski said he needs time to respond to a ruling from the Florida 2nd District Court of Appeal, which reversed a circuit court decision suppressing the contents of a Dell computer seized to make the case against Chiquet. The appeal court ruling was issued in late June.
Also, the defense still plans to take depositions, including that of a former assistant state attorney, in connection with the witness tampering allegation.
As of Islander press time, a judge had not ruled on the motion.