Farzana Leyva has filed a motion to remove Judge Justin P. Jiron from car crash trial

Orleans County State’s Attorney Farzana Leyva has filed a motion to remove Judge Justin P. Jiron from the Katelyn Deslandes fatal car crash trial. The Orleans County prosecutor on the Deslandes case is Sarah A. Baker. Baker recently moved from the Franklin County State’s Attorney’s Office to prosecute cases in Orleans County. According to the state and court records, while Baker was serving in Franklin County, she was assigned to prosecute Judge Jiron’s daughter – Jasmine Jiron, 27 – on a drunken driving charge in August of 2022. On Tuesday, Judge Jiron denied Leyva’s motion on the record but said he would still send the motion to Judge Thomas A. Zonay – the judiciary’s administrative judge. According to the state’s attorney’s office, the five-day trial of Katelyn Deslandes is scheduled to begin on Sept 11, 2023, in Orleans Superior Court.