LAKEPORT — The jury selection for the trial of Daniel Alan York, who is accused of severely injuring a police officer while trying to evade arrest, started Friday at the Lake County Courthouse.
York, 53, faces charges including attempted murder of a peace officer, felony hit-and-run resulting in injury, assault with a deadly weapon not a firearm and avoiding a peace officer causing serious injury.
Prior to the beginning of jury selection, York entered a 170.6 motion, which states that a judge of a superior court of the State of California shall not try a civil or criminal action that involves a contested issue of law or fact when it is established that the judge or court commissioner is prejudiced against a party or attorney or attorney appearing in the action or proceeding.
With the motion, York claimed that if trial proceedings began Friday, he would have unlikely received a fair trial.
Deputy District Attorney Art Grothe objected to the motion and said that such a motion needed to be filed during or before trial assignment.
York”s attorney, Doug Rhoades, said that hearings the day of trial assignment were seen “very quickly,” and that he was not sure his client understood exactly when he was being assigned for trial and who the judge in his case would be.
Judge Richard C. Martin accepted the motion and excused himself from the court for nearly an hour to do research and review the motion. He returned and said that there a few exceptions to the time restrictions and cited a couple of cases, but ultimately denied the motion.
Jury selection began at 1:30 p.m. and continued into later Friday afternoon.
York will face trial for allegations that he pinned a Clearlake Police Department officer with a Chevy SUV against a Ford F-250 truck on Sept. 22 in Clearlake. He reportedly hit the officer and the truck hard enough that the truck moved a few feet.
The officer was previously reported to be making a recovery.
York awaits further trial proceedings in custody at the Lake County Hill Road Correctional Facility.
Isaac Brambila is an associate editor for Lake County Publishing. Reach him at 263-5636 ext. 37 or at ibrambila@record-bee.com.
