Slade's lawyers want her trial moved

Former Texas Southern University President Priscilla Slade is set to stand trial Aug. 10 on charges of misspending millions of dollars in public funds — but the trial's location could be up in the air. According to the AP, Slazde'a attorneys are asking for her trial to be moved to Travis County, saying heavy media coverage in Houston has "created a climate within this community where (Slade) can no longer obtain an unbiased jury of her peers." Prosecutors say they can find 12 unbiased people in Harris County — maybe they should start with the people who not-so-randomly called in to KCOH when Slade commandeered that station's morning show last spring, eh?

Seriously, though, there seems to be a real question about impartiality. The Chronicle talked with a couple of experts — Sandra Guerra Thompson, a law professor at UH, said change-of-venue requests are hard to get approved because they're costly and it's difficult to convince judges that impartial jurors can't be found. "A lot of people don't follow the news and know nothing about the case," Thompson said. "And people who know a little about the case will still under oath be able to tell a judge they can be fair." But Richard Murray of the UH Center for Public Policy, who conducted a survey of Harris, Galveston and Travis county jurors for the defense, showed that there might be something to the defense request. "There's a lot of pre-knowledge here," Murray said of the Houston area. "And a lot of it is negative. That case has a lot of resonance here. Travis County would provide a much more impartial jury."

Also in the Slade case, the defense wants a laptop seized at the ex-president's ex-residence last year thrown out as evidence because they say the laptop wasn't named in the search warrant. It's not clear what might have been on the laptop, but the AP reports that state District Judge Brock Thomas could rule on the request Wednesday. As for the change of venue request, a hearing on that could be held laster this month.

Slade, you'll remember, is accused of spending nearly $2 million in public funds on personal expenses, including gym memberships, moving expenses, Christmas gifts, church donations and china, during her more than six years as TSU president. Her former CFO, Quintin Wiggins, was sentenced to 10 years in May for funneling nearly $300,000 of that money into secret accounts Slade used.