Hi, this is Christopher Gafford. I'm at work putting together a new narrative series set to drop in the fall.

In the meantime, I wanted to reintroduce you to the Trials of Frank Carson, the story of a criminal defense attorney who was put on trial for murder.

Thanks for listening, and please rate and subscribe. You know, You know, Thank you. The Hi, again, I'm Steve Clow. I am the editor of our podcast, The Trials of Frank Carson,

and this is bonus episode six, prelim. I'm here with our reporter and host Christopher Gawford.

How's it going, Chris?

I'm doing great, Steve.

How are you?

Very, very well.

So in this episode, we learn all about the preliminary hearing, which is a common event in criminal cases.

This one ends up being different from most preliminary hearings.

Maybe you could first just give a quick explanation of what a preliminary hearing is intended for and how this one ended up running so long?

Well, before it goes to trial, the prosecutor has to make a case before a judge that there is a probable cause to bind the defendants over to trial. Normally, these are pretty quick affairs.

This one was only expected to go a few weeks at most, maybe four weeks. It went

in the end 18 months, an 18-month preliminary hearing, which I think was a record in Stanislaus County.

Why did it go so long? For one thing, there were a lot of defendants. That means a lot of lawyers,

and they all got a chance to cross-examine the witnesses. There were a lot of defendants. That means a lot of lawyers, and they all got a chance

to cross-examine the witnesses. There were a lot of witnesses. Many of them people, the DA, put on

the stand with the hope of building a portrait of Frank Carson as a bully and a screamer and someone

with no grip on his temper, and as someone who was

supposedly surveilling and getting ready to engage in vigilante justice with regard to his

property in Turlock. So this preliminary hearing happened at the U.S. Bankruptcy Court building on

12th Street, which was used because it could

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