Eugene “Big U” Henley’s legal team wants to push back his impending RICO trial —but he himself isn’t on board.
In a new court filing submitted on April 10, Henley’s attorneys —along with lawyers for co-defendants Mark Martin and Sylvester Robinson — have requested that a federal judge push their trial date from May 5, 2026, to Feb. 16, 2027. This request comes despite Henley being against the delay.
According to the motion, defense attorneys argue that they don’t have enough time to prepare for his enormous case, thanks to the mountains of discovery that they have to sift through. Henley faces 43 counts for a variety of alleged crimes including murder, robbery, extortion, fraud, and more.
The attorneys say they have more than 1.1 million items to go through, including tens of thousands of wiretapped calls and thousands of surveillance videos. Though the defense teams have claimed that they divided the workload to go over in preparation for trial, they claim that there’s much to be done in order to be adequately prepared.
Henley’s own lawyers agree with that assessment, even if he himself doesn’t. In the filing, they warn that going to trial without additional time for prep could risk ineffective assistance of counsel.
In opposition to that, prosecutors don’t want the case to be pushed back. In a separate opposition filed on Sunday (Apr. 12), the U.S. Attorney’s Office called the request a last-minute reversal and accused the defense teams of gamesmanship. They argued that pushing this case out for nearly another year would be excessive since the date was set with more than enough prep time.
Another reason that prosecutors want to keep the current timeline stems from what they say is “ongoing witness intimidation.” They argue that every additional month that the case is delayed exposes witnesses to more danger — and that one cooperating witness, whose identity was shared on social media, has already had his house vandalized, robbed, and spray painted with the word “rat.”
The latest movement in Henley’s case comes months after he alleged that he’s been the target of abuse and cruelty while locked up at MDC Los Angeles, where he’s been since last March.
In February, federal prosecutors filed a superseding indictment against Henley, which expanded their racketeering case against him.
