PORT ANGELES — A judge has postponed Barry Swegle’s trial by one month despite objections from the man accused of smashing through his neighborhood with a bulldozer in May.
Swegle, 51, was scheduled to go to trial Aug. 12 for allegedly destroying or badly damaging four Gales Addition homes, flattening a pickup truck and knocking over a power pole with the logging skidder he owned.
Defense attorney Karen Unger asked Clallam County Superior Court Judge S. Brooke Taylor for a short continuance in a Friday court hearing.
“No, Karen, no,” Swegle said.
“I gave you a month already.”
Unger said her client met with a psychiatrist Monday, but she hadn’t re-ceived a report she needed for a possible diminished-mental-capacity defense.
“I know he wants to go to trial on the 12th, and I don’t think that I am ready to do that,” Unger told the judge.
Deputy Prosecuting Attorney John Troberg, a former defense attorney, did not object to the continuance. He said he understood Unger’s need to develop a diminished-capacity defense.
“Mr. Swegle’s mental status is really fundamental for the defense,” he said.
Swegle is charged with one count of first-degree assault with a deadly weapon, four counts of first-degree burglary with a deadly weapon — “to wit, a bulldozer” — and four counts of first-degree malicious mischief.
He has pleaded not guilty.
Taylor told Swegle he understood the desire to go to trial. He added that the charges against Swegle are “extremely serious” and the case is “very complicated.”
“I have to defer to your attorney’s judgment over yours as to whether or not she is ready to present an adequate defense on your behalf,” Taylor said.
“She is an experienced criminal defense lawyer. You are not.”
Taylor noted that a diminished-capacity defense may benefit Swegle in the long run.
He reset the trial for Sept. 9 and scheduled an Aug. 23 case status hearing.
Swegle’s speedy-trial window will expire Sept. 11. Taylor found adequate cause to extend the trial beyond that date, if necessary.
In a July hearing, Unger had said she might seek a change of venue because of widespread publicity. The case made international news and will be featured on ABC-TV’s “20/20” newsmagazine later this month.
Unger made no mention of a change of venue in Friday’s hearing.
She did ask Taylor to reconsider Swegle’s bail, which is set at $1 million.
“Murderers have lower bail than that,” Unger said.
She noted that “nobody was even close to being hurt” in the noon-hour incident May 10.
“A million dollars is appropriate based upon what I read in the probable-cause certificate,” Taylor said.
“It is not going to be reduced.”
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Reporter Rob Ollikainen can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5072, or at rollikainen@peninsuladailynews.com.
