A federal judge in San Francisco has once again delayed the resumption of the criminal trial of a Russian man accused of hacking Silicon Valley technology companies.

The trial of Yevgeniy Aleksandrovich Nikulin, who is charged with hacking LinkedIn, Dropbox and Formspring, has been put on hold since the Bay Area was put under local shelter-in-place orders in mid-March to address the COVID-19 pandemic.

U.S. District Judge William Alsup of the Northern District of California during a telephonic hearing Tuesday said that resuming the trial July 6 rather than June 8 would provide a better chance of reseating the current jury amid concerns about the virus. Alsup put the chances of keeping a jury together out of the original 12 jurors and four alternates who began hearing testimony in March at 20% if the trial were to resume next week and 70% if it were to resume next month.

"It's a gamble either way, but it's a more reasonable gamble if we wait," said Alsup.

The judge added that current civil unrest in the city and threats to the district's courthouses also convinced him that the later date was better. David Patrick Underwood, a security guard, was shot and killed while protecting the federal building that's home to the Oakland courthouse the Night of May 29.

"We're walking on eggshells," said Alsup, after mentioning the Underwood's death.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Michelle Kane had initially raised concerns about the July 6 trial date, because the FBI case agent on the matter is set to be reassigned to a field office in Indiana in the interim. She also said that the agent was anticipating a "significant family event."

"I gotta tell you, in ordinary times I would give that some weight," said Alsup, suggesting that a family vacation or a reassignment wouldn't be enough to change his mind on the July trial date.

"He's going to have to be here or you dismiss the case," Alsup said.

After Kane clarified that the agent was expecting the birth of his child July 1, Alsup said "that's good, but he can be in the court."

"He can be in Indiana on July 1 and fly out and be here on July 6," Alsup said.

Alsup mentioned that his colleague U.S. District Judge Vince Chhabria of the Northern District of California is acting as an "air traffic controller" for the collective trial schedule for the San Francisco courthouse, where current plans are for only one jury trial to move forward at a time to address public health concerns. After Kane and one of Nikulin's lawyers, Adam Gasner, said that they would possibly be willing to move forward with just 11 jurors, Alsup urged them to stipulate to doing so, if necessary. The judge put the prospect of moving forward with trial under those circumstances at closer to 90%.

"Your client needs to understand that if we don't finish with this jury, he may be languishing in pretrial detention for much longer," Alsup told Gasner, whose client has been in custody for about 44 months currently. Alsup said that if Nikulin's trial was unable to proceed with the current jury, he would not be in the front of the line for another trial date.

"I think we have a serious problem here," Alsup said. "I don't like for someone to be in pretrial detention this long."

Alsup also had stern words for Franco Muzzio of Keker, Van Nest & Peters who represents a LinkedIn witness who had earlier raised concerns about the virus in asking to provide testimony remotely, but who was prepared to come in to testify next week if he only had to appear one day and safety precautions were in place. Muzzio, citing the unpredictability of the virus, wouldn't say whether his client would be willing to come into court to testify in July or not. Alsup said that if the witness were to be allowed to testify by videotaped deposition it would put the judge in the position of forcing the jurors to come in for proceedings while the witness is allowed to stay home.

"That's not a good way to run the railroad, and I'd much rather he come in in person," Alsup said.

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