CLEVELAND (Court TV) — After prospective jurors arrived at the courthouse four days in a row for jury selection, an entire panel was dismissed Thursday after a defense attorney suddenly withdrew from a murder case—forcing a trial delay.
Gregory Moore appears in court on Sept. 15, 2026. (Court TV)
Gregory Moore, 52, an attorney himself, has pleaded not guilty to charges of murder, kidnapping and conspiracy in the death of his client, Aliza Sherman. Moore was a divorce attorney and was representing Sherman; on the day of her death, the victim received a message luring her to the law office, where she was chased down and stabbed more than 10 times.
Jury selection was scheduled to begin on Monday, but was delayed by a series of defense motions. First, the defense asked for a Daubert hearing to examine experts, but the court denied it. Then, the defense asked for a continuance, and the court denied it. The defense filed a motion to disqualify the prosecution, which was denied, along with multiple motions to dismiss the case entirely.
By Thursday morning, it appeared jury selection was going to begin — but then the lead attorney for Moore’s defense, John Paul Rion, filed a motion to withdraw from the case entirely. The motion said only that Rion wanted to withdraw; a second document with his reasoning was filed under seal and is not publicly available.
After the filing, Rion and the rest of the defense had an ex parte meeting with a different judge, who granted his request to withdraw from the case. When the parties returned to Judge Kira Krivosh’s courtroom, Rion was no longer seated at Moore’s counsel table.
Christopher Bucio, who joined Moore’s defense team in June, told Krivosh he needed to request a continuance because he would run the risk of providing ineffective counsel if he had to move forward on Thursday.
Prosecutor Kevin Filiatraut said he understood the defense’s position and recognized that what happened on Thursday was “all by the book,” but asked to note for the record that “this is the second time this has happened with Greg Moore.”
Gregory Moore sits as his attorney, John Paul Rion, stands in court on Sept. 17, 2026. (Court TV)
Filiatraut reminded the court that in 2014, as Moore prepared to go to trial, his attorney withdrew from the case in a motion filed under seal. “We can’t stop these things. They happen sometimes, so I’m not objecting to any of that,” he said. “So with that being said, we’ll leave it to the court’s discretion on this. We take no position on it. We’re ready to go. We have withstood a lot from the defense in the last two weeks trying to try this case.”
“This court has been prepared to proceed with trial and has been every day this week,” Krivosh said, clearly frustrated. “Based off the decision and the filings, this Court has no choice but to grant co-counsel’s motion to continue.”
Krivosh said the parties would return to court next week to address scheduling the trial.
