An El Paso County courtroom was tense on Friday afternoon when an attorney representing the alleged Club Q nightclub shooter, Anderson Aldrich, got into it with Judge Michael McHenry regarding a request to continue Aldrich's preliminary hearing.
Joseph Archambault, one of Aldrich's defense attorneys, told McHenry that he and his legal team wouldn't be ready for the preliminary hearing date of Feb. 22, due to the "voluminous" amount of discovery and a very busy schedule between now and the hearing date.
"We just aren't going to be ready on that Feb. 22 day," Archambault said. "We will not have time to review all of the discovery materials."
Archambault said that he had just received the majority of the discovery within the last two weeks, and the volume of it would be impossible for the defense team to review in time.
Archambault claimed that the discovery at this point totals over 5,000 pages and over 1.3 terabytes of data.
McHenry was not very receptive to the arguments presented by Archambault, and ultimately refused to grant a continuance, asking Archambault why this busy schedule was not brought up at a previous hearing.
McHenry went as far as to say if Archambault is too busy between now and Feb. 22 to review the discovery, that perhaps he should "ask his supervisors" if a different attorney can be put on the case.
"You're going to be here on Feb. 22," McHenry said to Archambault. "You aren't entitled to review every page of discovery for a preliminary hearing ... and I know you're fully aware of that."
District Attorney Michael Allen said that his office, as well as all victims his office has spoken with, do not want to see a continuance on Aldrich's preliminary hearing. Additionally, Allen said that the "fight on this case won't be at preliminary hearing," where Allen said he intends to show extensive surveillance footage of Aldrich committing the shooting.
After McHenry denied the request for a continuance, Archambault asked for McHenry to order Allen to send over any evidence to back up the bias-motivated crime charges, as he had not seen any evidence to suggest that those charge should be in play.
Allen said he "wasn't sure" what to say to that request as he insisted evidence to prove probable cause of the bias-motivated crime charges were within the discovery that had been sent to the defense already.
McHenry made no ruling on that request from Archambault but did ask for the prosecution to provide copies of the exhibits it plans to use at preliminary hearing as well as a witness list to the defense prior to the hearing. Allen did not object to the request, stating his office will send all the required materials to the defense by Friday, Feb. 3.
Twelve new criminal charges were also added to Aldrich's case after a motion from Allen was approved by McHenry.
Allen proposed the new charges in connection with two victims who survived the attack. The amended charges include attempted murder, attempted assault and bias-motivated crime against each of the victims. The total charge count would rise to 317.
The original charges included 10 counts of first-degree murder, 86 counts of attempted first-degree murder and 48 counts of bias motivated crime.
Aldrich now faces 317 charges for allegedly killing five patrons of Club Q, an LGBTQ+ nightclub in Colorado Springs, and injuring nearly two dozen more on Nov. 19, 2022.
Aldrich appeared in Colorado's 4th Judicial District Court on Wednesday as well, where Judge Robin Chittum dismissed a request from the defense to hold former El Paso County Sheriff Bill Elder in contempt for allegedly leaking sealed documents to the media.
Aldrich will have their preliminary hearing for the Club Q shooting on Feb. 22. Aldrich is in the El Paso County jail with no possibility of posting bond.
