Hearing set on whether to move Kleinert case to federal court

A U.S. District Judge could decide next week whether to move the criminal case against a former APD detective to federal court. Judge Lee Yeakel set a hearing date for Tuesday afternoon for arguments from Charles Kleinert's attorneys and Travis County prosecutors.

Kleinert's attorneys filed a motion to move the criminal case to federal court. They argue at the time of the shooting when Larry Jackson was killed Kleinert was on a federal task force therefore acting as a federal law enforcement officer.

Prosecutors argue that Kleinert's case should stay under state jurisdiction.

Yeakel told both sides that the law is not clear in this case and that in his time on the bench he has not seen or heard of a similar request.

The first issue the court will tackle is whether the case should move or stay. If Yeakel keeps the case the next hearing will dig deeper into whether Kleinert was acting as a federal law enforcement officer.

Last year a Travis County grand jury indicted Kleinert on one count of manslaughter for shooting Larry Jackson, Jr.

Attorney Adam Loewy represents Jackson's parents for the civil case and sat through the conference hearing. "It's critical the case stays in Travis County. We need Austin residents to decide and I believe the case will go back to state court but there are a lot of legal issues to work through," said Loewy.

A jury trial date has been set for April 20th in state court. It's not clear how these proceedings will impact that time line.