NORWICH – District Attorney Joseph McBride will be traveling to the state capitol Monday to engage defense attorney Randel Scharf in oral arguments regarding a change of venue motion made by the defense in the Peter M. Wlasiuk murder retrial.

“I can not comment on an on going case, but can confirm that the defense filed a change of venue which will be addressed next Monday before the appellate division in Albany,” McBride said Tuesday.

State of New York Supreme Court, Appellate Division, Third Judicial Department, which appealed the murder case nearly two years ago on Aug. 31, 2006, will now have to decide if Wlasiuk can receive a fair trial in Chenango County.

If the motion is approved, the case would be relocated by the court to an area outside of the county. The appellate division may also send the case back to Chenango to see if the county court and the attorneys could select a jury. If the pool of potential jurors was exhausted, then the defense could again renew its motion to move the case.

“This is a very publicized case for such a small community and in this tightly-knit community it would be very difficult to find anyone, let alone a group of people, that had never heard of it. There isn’t a person I know that hasn’t already formed at least some sort of an opinion about the case,” said Scharf.