Tuesday’s hearing in the on-going Lane Myers Experience had everything any trial watcher could desire – intrigue, deception, bitchy in-fighting, and, of course, the sheer insanity of Lane Myers serving as his own defense in one of the two sets of charges he’s facing.
Judge Scott McDonald filled in for Judge D. Douglas Metcalf and indicated that he was only there to set a trial date and was not familiar enough with the case to rule on motions. However, the case was nearly immediately delayed as Myers had yet to be transferred from the Pima County Adult Correctional facility.
McDonald was ready to set the trial date for July 21, 2025, before pausing to let the prosecutor and defense attorneys check their calendars.
During this brief pause to check calendars and before the court to decide to move on to other cases, Prosecutor Rachel Stiles and defense attorney for Myers, William Parven, bickered in front of microphones.
Parven said that he thought that Myers was lying about being denied access to the court’s law library. Stiles asked if he had called over to the jail to check Myers’ story as she had done. Parven said he had not, and Stiles sniped that he should “do his job.”
The two went on to bicker about Parven’s belief that his motions to dismiss will go in his favor and either see Myers released on bond or the entire case be dismissed. Stiles seemed confident that Myers would remain in jail and go to trial.
There was a 30–40-minute wait as Judge McDonald heard other cases before Myers was brought to the courthouse and the hearing resumed.
McDonald started by attempting to set the trial date for both sets of charges for July 21, to which Myers interjected and asked if he could be heard. McDonald granted Myers his wish and Myers demanded a trial sooner than later and suggested starting the trial “next week.”
Myers said that he had again been denied access to the law library and made it clear that there was no sense in being housed at jail when he couldn’t prepare to defend himself against the charges he was facing as a pro se defendant without access.
He further stated that he was unable to interview witnesses or access the files on his computer from his home computer, which greatly hampered his case.
Myers and Parven got into a verbal dispute over the trial date as Parven explained that there were pending motions that needed to be heard before they could go to trial. He attempted to have Myers sign on to those motions, since Myers was still defending himself in one set of charges, as he was confident that Myers would either be released on bond or have both sets of charges dismissed.
Defendant Myers agreed to let Parven’s motions play out, but then indicated that he was getting rid of Parven for the second set of charges after the motions were heard.
Myers made a rambling, often incoherent statement of demands to the Judge, during which the court reporter had to interject as Myers was talking over everyone and speaking so fast that the reporter could not keep up with what he was saying.
At one point, Myers demanded the right to immediately fire Parven when Parven corrected Myers’ statement that implied he never had access to a computer. Parven said that he brought his computer each time he visited Myers but corrected his statement to reflect Myers’ declaration that he was unable to have access to the computer when he was not in Parven’s presence.
Myers stated that he was again denied access to the law library and said that a guard at the jail ordered him to get a court order for access to the law library. Myers did not make it clear that he was talking about the electronic law library, which all prisoners have access to, or the area of the facility that was called the “law library” before it was apparently shut down two years ago.
Making more demands, Myers stated that prosecutor Stiles was late in filing a witness list and he said he’d be filing a motion to block her witnesses from testifying due to the lateness of her filing. He demanded that Judge McDonald order Stiles to present her witness list immediately. McDonald declined to do so.
When it was prosecutor Stiles’ turn to speak, she again explained that the detention center has stated that Myers has access to the electronic law library and records indicated that he had been using it since March 21, 2025.
On the subject of the witness list, she said that it was not normal procedure to file a document called a witness list but, since Myers was insisting, she’d get one together for his files.
Stiles brought up that Parven was refusing to attend a settlement conference. Parven snipped at her that he was “doing his job” and that a settlement conference made no sense because a plea deal was not on the table.
Parven claimed that Stiles would not be offering a plea deal, though Myers interjected that he’d be willing to hear from Stiles should she come up with one. Parven again repeated that he believed the case would either be dismissed or Myers would be out on bond as a result of his recent motions.
Stiles and Parven eventually suggested punting all Myers new demands for hearings and motions into the already scheduled Monday hearing with Judge Metcalf. Judge McDonald agreed and eventually set the initial trial for both sets of charges for July 21, 2025.
The next hearing in the case is set for Monday, April 21, 2025.
Update: Prosecutor Stiles filed a witness list at Myers’ request immediately following the hearing.
