Judge orders lawyer to stay on Bob Bashara case

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DETROIT, July 19 (UPI) -- A lawyer who asked to withdraw from representing a man in a solicitation-for-murder case was ordered by a Detroit judge Thursday to stay on the case for now.

Chief Judge Kenneth J. King denied a motion by high-profile lawyer David Griem to withdraw from representing Bob Bashara, the Detroit Free Press reported.

King ordered Griem to stay on the case for the preliminary examination, set for Tuesday.

"There has been an irreparable breakdown in the attorney/client relationship," Griem had said in a motion Wednesday for himself and fellow attorney Christina Utley to withdraw.

King said Griem had failed to provide a good cause for withdrawing, expressed concerns about delaying the preliminary exam and said it was in Bashara's best interest for Griem to remain on the case.

If Bashara "wants to hire another attorney, I have no issue with that," King said to Griem. "But that doesn't mean you're going anywhere. ... You can assist, take the lead, whatever it is that you guys decide to do."

Bashara is jailed on charges he tried to hire a hit man to kill Joseph Gentz, who is charged with murder and conspiracy in the January strangulation of Bashara's wife, Jane Bashara. Bob Bashara has not been charged in his wife's murder but has been called a person of interest, the Free Press said.

In court, Bashara said he wants a new attorney. Griem, he said, "has been a little less effective than I hoped he would be."

King said Griem did not provide the "substance of the breakdown" he had with Bashara.

"You just can't come in and say, 'I quit,'" King said. "It doesn't work like that."