Defense attorneys this week asked to withdraw a motion to dismiss filed almost five months ago in the criminal case against a former Limestone County judge, with one attorney saying they were “unlikely to prevail” if the motion continued.

The motion was filed in late March and asked all counts of the indictment against Doug Patterson, then a circuit court judge, be dismissed “due to undue influence.” Furthermore, they wanted a portion of the Alabama Ethics Act deemed unconstitutional.

In the months since the motion was filed, a civil case against Patterson was dismissed without prejudice, leaving the Alabama Judicial Inquiry Commission the option to refile after the criminal case is resolved. The State also filed a motion to quash a subpoena for Limestone County District Judge Robert Baker in the criminal case, though attorneys said the motion would be moot if the defense successfully withdrew its motion to dismiss.

Defense attorney Chuck Warren said in a hearing Thursday that the defense team didn’t believe Judge Stephen Haddock, the presiding judge in the criminal case, would rule in their favor on the motion. In light of that, they hoped he would grant their request to withdraw the motion.

Haddock said he would grant it on one condition — they can’t file the motion again and Patterson “would be barred in the future from raising the same claims, issues or arguments in a subsequent motion.”

After granting the request, Haddock turned his attention to the state’s motion, dismissing it as moot, then to a new deadline for motions in limine. He said that with the pandemic and the fact that he’s having to use Baker’s courtroom for hearings and the trial, it would take time for him to have an official date.

However, it was generally agreed among the three parties that the deadline to file motions ahead of the jury trial should be about four weeks before the trial begins, with a hearing set for two weeks before the trial begins.