Twenty-two months to the day after City Hall construction consultant Paul Bilodeau was murdered, at a building site, allegedly by 25-year-old Myron Deshun Grant, the suspect won a months’ long delay this morning.
Mr. Grant’s new attorney pleaded with Superior Court Judge Keith L. Schwartz for the longest possible postponement. He cited an overwhelming amount of background on the case and on his multiple-felony client to catch up on.
Judge Schwartz, in an uncommonly feisty, plain-talking and sometimes witty mood, chuckled when the lawyer told him he needed much more time to match up and verify for accuracy “10,000” pages of discovery against a ready-made transcript.
“I heard you have taken the Evelyn Wood Speed Reading course,” Judge Schwartz said, “and 10,000 pages shouldn’t take you more than a week.”
Ten thousand may be an inflated number, a sound-good number or a rounded-off number.
Earlier, out of the hearing range of Judge Schwartz, Mr. Grant’s lawyer said there were only “8,000” pages. He also said he needed to study “35 or 36” audio tapes.
Judge Schwartz ordered Mr. Grant to return on Wednesday, Jan. 19, 2½ weeks after the two-year anniversary of the homicide.
Privately, Mr. Grant’s lawyer said he doesn’t intend to “do the preliminary hearing” until springtime, in March.