Mike Blakely, the indicted 10-term sheriff of Limestone County, is hospitalized and unable to appear for trial on Monday, his lawyers wrote this afternoon in a request to postpone the trial.

Blakely has a serious respiratory condition and is being tested for the new coronavirus, according to a motion filed by his attorneys.

“In the interest of Justice and due to medical necessity, Counsel requests a continuance of this case,” the motion states.

[Read the motion here or at the bottom of this story.]

Judge N. Pride Tompkins has scheduled a hearing for Saturday morning at the Limestone County Courthouse.

Update: Sheriff Mike Blakely not believed to have coronavirus, doctor testifies; trial delayed

Included in the court filing is a letter signed by Maria Acelajado Onoya, an attending physician at Athens Limestone Hospital. The letter says Blakely is expected to be in the hospital for two-three days for acute respiratory failure secondary to an asthma exacerbation.

“I do not foresee that he will be able to appear for his trial on Monday, March 9, 2020,” the letter states. The doctor’s letter doesn’t mention coronavirus.

There haven’t been any confirmed coronavirus cases in Alabama. The virus has killed more than a dozen people in the United States and infected more than 300, The New York Times reported today.

Blakely, 69, is scheduled to face trial Monday on 11 charges of theft and abuse of power. (He was indicted in August of 2019 on 13 charges, but prosecutors today dropped two of the charges.) The sheriff is accused of stealing thousands of dollars from his campaign account and illegally taking money from Limestone County funds. Blakely, who has been sheriff since 1983, has pleaded not guilty to all charges.

The judge last month denied a request from Blakely’s lawyers to postpone the trial because Tuten, the sheriff’s lead defense attorney, is recovering from surgery. The defense appealed the judge’s ruling to the Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals, which rejected their request.

At a pretrial hearing in January, Judge Tompkins explicitly said he wouldn’t postpone the trial and specifically warned Blakely that a continuance wouldn’t be granted on account of his lawyer’s health. The judge at that time told Blakely to hire a new attorney if Tuten wouldn’t be available for trial.