A trial date is set for State Auditor Kathy McGuiness' criminal case.
The News-Journal reports a court order earlier this week puts the trial date sometime in May 2022.
McGuiness faces multiple felony and misdemeanor charges.
The Delaware Department of Justice claims she unfairly hired her daughter and her daughter’s friend after several employees had left the office due to a lack of available work.
The auditor is also accused of improperly granting a contract to a company that worked on her election campaign, and advised the company on how to avoid public scrutiny in the process.
In a court order late last month, the judge ruled the public should not pay for McGuiness’ private attorney in lieu of a public defender. McGuiness asked the state to pay for that attorney, Steve Wood, since the DOJ typically represents public officials, but cannot in this case.
The judge says the Office of Defense services, which provides public defenders to regular Delawareans and operates independently of the DOJ, is permitted to represent the auditor.
State lawmakers earlier this week retained former Delaware Delaware Supreme Court Justice Randy Holland to help examine their options for removing McGuiness from office.
Roman Battaglia is a corps member with Report for America, a national service program that places journalists into local newsrooms.
