Michael Barisone appeared in front of superior court judge Stephen Taylor on March 2 alongside his lawyer Ed Bilinkas.
Barisone is charged with two counts of attempted murder and two counts of possessing a weapon for an unlawful purpose following an Aug. 7 altercation with Lauren Kanarek and Rob Goodwin that left Kanarek in critical condition after being shot twice in the chest and sent all three to the hospital with injuries. Barisone is pleading not guilty.
The hearing was an initial disposition conference for both sides to discuss discovery, an exchange of legal information and facts of the case. Several media outlets reported that Bilinkas said the sheer volume of material has delayed the case, and they are subpoenaing more than 31,000 pieces of evidence, 19,000 of which are documents from Kanarek’s social media accounts.
Bilinkas is also requesting audio files, as he says Kanarek was secretly and illegally recording private conversations between Barisone and others, repeating details on her social media posts, according to Northjersey.com.
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NJ.com reported that both New Jersey assistant prosecutor Chris Schellhorn and Bilinkas are seeking documents from the U.S. Center For SafeSport, saying that Barisone and others reached out to the organization to complain about Kanarek prior to the incident, and that she did the same. After the shooting Barisone was declared ineligible to compete by the U.S. Center For SafeSport.
The shooting occurred after representatives of New Jersey’s Child Protection and Permanency came to the farm to investigate an allegation that Barisone was abusing his partner’s children. The tip allegedly came from Kanarek and Goodwin. Nancy Jaffer reported that Bilinkas wanted to include the CP&P investigator’s determination that the child abuse claims were unfounded, but Taylor said the social worker’s report clearing Barisone wasn’t relevant or admissible because it’s a different agency with a different mission.
Kanarek filed a lawsuit over the alleged shooting against Barisone and his company Sweetgrass Farms in October.
Barisone’s next court date is set for April 6, at which point Bilinkas hopes to have gone through all of the discovery material.