Attorney asks to sever charges in sex assault case

CLOVIS — The attorney representing a man slated to stand trial in district court next month to face criminal sexual contact charges has filed a motion to sever charges. Chris Christensen serves as the lawyer for David Garcia, who is scheduled for trial Feb. 15-17.

“We will be ready for trial,” said Christensen during a docket call before Judge Drew Tatum Tuesday. “I did file that motion to sever Jan. 11. I personally feel this motion to sever should have been filed at least a year ago.”

Garcia is facing eight felony counts — five for criminal sexual contact of a minor on a child under 13, and three for criminal sexual contact of a minor by a person in a position of authority.

The charges cover three separate alleged victims who are related to each other and disclosed allegations at the same time. Garcia wants charges involving each alleged victim tried separately, while the state feels they should fall under one trial.

During the proceedings Tatum issued a plea deadline five days prior to the trial start date.

“The plea deadline will be Feb. 10,” he said. “We can get it set for 30 minutes, sometime prior to jury trial. I don’t think we’ll need any more time than that.”

Chief Deputy District Attorney Brian Stover will represent the state in the matter.

“The state is prepared to go to trial,” he said. “The court may recall at the previous setting the state requested a continuance due to a late disclosure of polygraph evidence. We received that, then disclosed it to our own expert. We disclosed his report and are prepared to move forward. Mr. Christensen is the third attorney now to have the case. We spoke about negotiations for a plea. Previous attorneys indicated they were not interested in negotiations. Other than that, the state is ready.”