"It's both with great disappointment and relief that I'm here," said Paula Canny, Momeni's now-former attorney, in a courthouse interview."It's a super messed up situation."
While Canny declined to speak to the nature of the conflict of interest, she had previously expressed displeasure at Momeni, which would have given Canny and her legal team less time to form their defense. "Sh-- happens when representing people. It's just like that," Canny said."Energetically, I have my way. Clients have their way."
Momeni had waived his right to have a preliminary hearing within 10 court days. He spoke for himself in court Tuesday and will presumably have a new attorney at his next appearance, which was set for June 13."Pretty much every major case that has one of these high-profile things, the first lawyer always gets dumped," Canny said."Every single one I've thought about -- and there's a bunch of different reasons for that. This isn't the first time that this sort of happens.
"It's not easy to prepare for something like this, in that short period of time and do a real good adequate defense. But the defendant doesn't want to sit in jail. He's freaking out. And he wants to hopefully be exonerated right away," Golde explained."And so he's, he's panicking, it would seem, and requesting a speedy preliminary hearing."