On January 6th, the Preliminary Hearings were to be held for Michael Headley and Angela Lamb at the Harrison County Courthouse in front of Mark Gorby, Special Magistrate.
The Preliminary Hearings are sometimes called probable cause hearings and it is where a judge decides if there is probable cause to require a defendant to stand trial. The preliminary hearing usually has one of three outcomes:
Go to trial. Most often, the defendant is held to answer (or “bound over”) for trial on the original charge.
Reduced charges. Sometimes, when the charge is a felony, the judge may reduce the charge to a misdemeanor or a less serious felony.
Dismissed!
In these two cases, both waived their right to the Preliminary Hearing leading the cases to be bound over to the Circuit Court.
We know at this point that Judge Thomas Bedell of the 15th Judicial Circuit has been appointed as the Special Judge to hear these cases.