By David Howell

After a lengthy delay, the District Attorney’s office is working to set a trial date for a Sardis man charged with 10 counts of child molestation and one count of attempted child molestation.

The Panola County Sheriff’s Department arrested Michael Saripkin in September, 2010. The arrest  followed a nine-month  investigation that started when authorities learned that Saripkin had two minor boys living in his East Lee Street home in Sardis, according to the court file.

A?grand jury in the First Judicial District of Panola County indicted Saripkin of the 11-count indictment in November, 2010.

In January, 2011, Saripkin waived his right to an arraignment and entered a not guilty plea. A court date was initially set for May, 2011, before Circuit Judge Smith Murphey. The trial date was pushed back twice in 2011, the first time because Saripkin’s attorney, Kevin Horan, was out of the state. The second continuance came after the defendant requested additional time to complete the discovery contest, according to court files.

The case hit another delay after Saripkin’s attorney filed a motion to recuse the trial judge. The motion was filed in December, 2011, citing that the allegations against Saripkin occurred when Judge Murphey previously worked as an Assistant District Attorney.

Judge Murphey signed the order, and the case was re-assigned to Circuit Judge Gerald Chatham on January, 2012.

Assistant District Attorney Jay Hale told the Reporter his office is working to get the trial date set in late 2012 or early 2013.

“We think it will take two or three days,” Hale said about the trial.

Saripkin’s attorney, Horan, also serves as a state representative. Hale  told the Reporter earlier in the month that he hoped to schedule the trial prior to the start of the 2013 legislative session. Under state law, an attorney serving as a state representative is excused from court during session.

Hale said Horan will likely agree to schedule the case during session if the case is not scheduled by the start of the 2013 legislative session.

“We both want to get this set for trial,”?Hale added.

Saripkin is a registered sex offender for two counts of felony statutory rape. He served four years in Tennessee prison before being released in 2002.

Saripkin’s background also includes arrests for third degree burglary in 1982 an 1983, and sexual battery in 1988 and 1990, according to the Interstate Identification Index (III), a record that complies offenders’ arrest histories.

The latter sexual battery arrest shows the County Correction Center in Memphis as the arresting agency, according to the III.

In April 1997, Saripkin was arrested in Jackson, Tennessee and charged with two counts of aggravated rape male by male,  the last charge before his felony arrests in 1998.