The judge presiding over the trial of former Hopkinton Deputy Police Chief John “Jay” Porter on Monday rescheduled the proceedings until June 2, citing attorney schedule conflicts and the influence of potential jurors by people familiar with the case over the upcoming holiday weekend.

This is the latest in a series of delays in this highly anticipated court case. According to masscourts.org, the trial originally was scheduled for May 7, 2024, only two days before the anniversary of when Porter pleaded not guilty to three counts of child rape; it was rescheduled to Sept. 16, 2024. On March 28, 2024, it was rescheduled for Dec. 9, 2024, at the request of the attorneys on both sides because of “outstanding discovery.” On Oct. 30 of last year, the date was moved to May 12 of this year at the request of the defendant.

During Monday’s 15-minute hearing at Middlesex Superior Court in Woburn, Judge Michael Pineault anticipated a motion by Worcester-based defense attorney Leonardo Angiulo to continue the trial, according to a court recording.

On May 16, defense counsel made a motion in limine to “admit evidence and testimony from 2004 allegation of sexual assault by a peer.” Pineault on Monday started the hearing by saying he would “make an effort” to rule on the admissibility of this information before the start of the trial.

Pineault expressed concern that if Angiulo intended to appeal his decision, it would leave jurors “on ice” until a ruling was made. He also noted that prosecutor Maren Schrader had planned to be out of town next week.

“Where does that leave us?” he asked. “We have a victim — an alleged victim — who presumably wants this case to go to trial, judging from the text messages that I’ve read.”

Angiulo said that voir dire, a process through which potential jurors are questioned by attorneys and the judge for potential bias, would need to be conducted for the trial to go forward. With the prosecutor being out of town next week and the upcoming Memorial Day holiday weekend, presenting “half a case” before then did not seem prudent.

He also called attention to media coverage and its possible influence over potential jurors.

“This case had plenty of media [coverage] when it started,” Angiulo explained. “While the mainstream media has sort of petered off, there’s a local Hopkinton newspaper … there’s comment sections of retired police officers chiming in with evidence from the POST Commission in the comment sections.”

“They are going to be at barbecues,” he continued regarding potential jurors. “Our only chance at not having any kind of media awareness by the jurors is if we just try this case in a week.”

He added that he anticipated the judge to rule against his motion to enter evidence from the 2004 allegation into the record, which he intends to appeal if done. This would cause a further trial delay.

Schrader added that she was unaware of this new evidence until a day before a recent pretrial conference.

At that point, Angiulo said he intended to file for a continuance.

Pineault asked Schrader what the alleged survivor wanted.

Said Schrader: “She wants it over. I think that’s very clear.”

She added that everyone wants to see a fluid trial and that her hope was that Pineault would continue to be the presiding judge if the trial were rescheduled because he invested time in reviewing the evidence. Pineault agreed.

Also, some of the anticipated witnesses who are teachers may be out of town in July, according to Schrader.

Pineault said he would take Angiulo’s comment as a request to continue the trail and scheduled it for June 2.

The voir dire process was scheduled to proceed Tuesday afternoon with the alleged survivor and former Hopkinton Police Sgt. Tim Brennan. Brennan was terminated from the HPD in February 2024 after a contentious hearing process for failing to report what he knew about the alleged assaults to his supervisor.

In a related development, court records showed that documents requested from the Hopkinton Police Department and the state’s Department of Children and Families were received last week. Records from the Hopkinton Public Schools were received by the court on Monday. Pineault approved a joint motion for the attorneys to copy and inspect these files. The new trial date will allow time for the attorneys to review this information.