Kahre

MEMORANDUM **

Petitioner Robert Kahre seeks a writ of mandamus directing the district court to vacate its sua sponte decision striking his substitution of Lisa Rasmussen as retained local counsel in his upcoming criminal trial. Petitioner sought the substitution after a trial resulted in the acquittal of some defendants, and a mistrial as to Petitioner and other defendants, who now face a second trial. While we understand the difficulty of managing this long and complex case, we find the district court did not conduct sufficient inquiry before striking the substitution of counsel. This Court thus does not have a clear record to evaluate the disqualification. We therefore grant the petition for writ of mandamus. We remand to the district court with instructions both to vacate its order striking Petitioner’s substitution of counsel, and to conduct further inquiry on the issue of attorney disqualification. This Court also grants Petitioner’s motion for reassignment to a different judge.

I. Petition for Writ of Mandamus

To issue a writ of mandamus, the Court weighs the factors set forth in Bauman v. U.S. Dist. Court, 557 F.2d 650 (9th Cir.1977):

Cole v. U.S. Dist. Court, 366 F.3d…