Lawyers for both sides in Sonoma County Supervisor Efren Carrillo's misdemeanor peeking case agreed Friday to a new set of court dates to allow more time to discuss a possible plea bargain.
Appearing before Judge Arnold Rosenfield, Carrillo's attorney Chris Andrian and prosecutor Cody Hunt were given a new date of Feb. 14 to update the court on their settlement talks.
Both lawyers said this week they had not yet begun substantive discussions.
"We both have our respective views on the case," Andrian said Friday after the brief court appearance. "We'll sit down and see if there's any common ground."
The trial date, once set for Feb. 28, was pushed back on Friday to March 7.
Carrillo, 32, faces up to six months in jail if convicted. He did not attend Friday's hearing.
He was arrested in July after he was found partially clothed outside the home of a Santa Rosa woman who twice phoned 911 in the early morning hours, the first time to report a man outside her bedroom window.
She told dispatchers she was awakened by the sound of moving window blinds.
She placed a second 911 call 10 minutes later to report someone knocked on her front door, identified himself as a neighbor, and ran away.
Officers found a torn window screen. Carrillo was in the area, clad in socks and underwear and carrying a cellphone.
Investigators said they believed Carrillo intended to attempt a sexual assault and he was arrested on suspicion of burglary, a felony.
But prosecutors subsequently concluded there was not evidence to support a felony charge.
In November, after three delays, Hunt, a special prosecutor for the state attorney general, filed a single misdemeanor peeking charge against Carrillo. A felony conviction would have resulted in removal from office.
Carrillo pleaded not guilty Dec. 12.
Andrian on Friday dismissed speculation that the case was playing out slowly, perhaps aiding Carrillo's bid to hold on to his 5th District supervisor's seat.
"I can cite 10 cases of mine right now where people have been arrested and haven't been charged for six to nine months," Andrian said. "It's not even close in my view to being dragged out."
As to what could result from a plea bargain, Andrian said it included a range of outcomes, from probation to jail time.
He reiterated that those discussions had yet to kick off and would ultimately involve a judge.
"It's zero to six months (jail time) and everything in between," Andrian said.
(You can reach Staff Writer Brett Wilkison at 521-5295 or brett.wilkison@pressdemocrat.com.)
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