John Chiv: Alleged sex trafficker will not waive time, DA wants to amend complaint and several issues have to be addressed before preliminary hearing

Oct 7, 2024

Alleged sex trafficker will not waive time, DA wants to amend complaint and several issues have to be addressed before preliminary hearing

Alleged sex trafficker Darin Ward had his preliminary hearing continued to October 7. In the original complaint, Ward was charged with 10 felonies and there are 4 alleged victims.

His bond status and a PPR report was also scheduled for this morning. On 10/2, the DA filed a motion to amend complaint. It was granted. The charges have not been updated in e court.

Time estimate is 2 days. Let's see if this proceeds today. It is the 9th day so there needs to be a time waiver by Ward. This morning in court, Ward's attorney, Mr. Ken Bareilles told Retired Judge Christopher Wilson that Ward does not want to waive time. Deputy District Attorney Carolyn Schaffer asked that the hearing be continued to this afternoon as she provided Mr. Bareilles with more discovery this morning.

Victim Witness Advocate and another support staff were in court this morning with two minors. Ward had three people in court. Two, I assume are his parents.

2:20 p.m. The preliminary hearing did not proceed this afternoon.

Mr. Bareilles is a nice man but he knew what kind of case this was before he took the money to be retained. This could have been over in two minutes if Mr. Bareilles had made the motion to withdraw as counsel instead of trying to use Judge Wilson as the bad guy. The right thing based on Mr. Bareilles' own remarks in court today stating that he is not the right attorney for this case is for him to allow another lawyer to take over tomorrow. Someone like Ms. Andrea Sullivan who has experience with such cases and can "handle the pace" and multiple cases which Mr. Bareilles admitted he cannot. As Judge Wilson said, there could be issues of appeal with ineffective counsel. Ms. Sullivan is an attorney who will not have conflicts other local attorneys would in this case.

On Tuesday, more time will be wasted because Mr. Bareilles won't make any requests that Judge Wilson can rule on. He was not aware that there is case law to continue the preliminary over his client's objection. He subpoenaed "4 or five" witnesses and has to offer proof and Judge Wilson had to give him Penal Code 866. There are other preliminary hearings scheduled tomorrow and everyone is sitting around waiting for Mr. Ken Bareilles to get his act together and Ward's family yelling at Eli Blasingame outside court, the bail agent from Bail Davidson Bonds because their son is stupid and they hired the wrong lawyer.

Retired Judge Christopher Wilson handled the situation well and put everything on record. So did Deputy District Attorney Carolyn Schaffer. Mr. Bareilles needs assistance with electronic discovery, he is using a neighbor and a person named Linda who knows one of the alleged victims. Mr. Bareilles' neighbor and Linda are helping him view CAST interviews and electronic discovery which is very sensitive and confidential. People sat around all day and waited in the courtroom so Mr. Bareilles could sign a CAST discovery agreement.

I have covered Ward prior to this recent arrests. Details on this case and his previous arrest (no charges were filed for that arrest) in links provided below.

10/8: Preliminary hearing proceeded today. Ward is now charged with 14 counts. It should have finished today but once again, continued for the third day because Mr. Bareilles doesn't know how to prep and we took two breaks already for him to look up what he should have yesterday. He tried to get me to research case law during a break and I told him that I cannot do that and had to explain why. Judge Timothy Canning told him the case needs to conclude by 4:30 today. No other media was there again today and they have missed two days of excellent testimony from HCSO Det. Brian Buihner.

Everyone from Judge Canning, court staff, the DAs office to Det. Buihner and parties interested in this case have to waste another day because Mr. Bareilles can't prep, his client was too stubborn to waive time yesterday and the family does not have sense to hire a skilled attorney who handles such cases.

I will be doing a detailed post on the preliminary hearing. For those who do not want to wait, thanks to court clerks Jessica yesterday and Audrey today, you can read the summary.

10/7 court minutes: