A pretrial hearing into the alleged child molestation of Vietnamese comedian Minh Beo was postponed for two weeks from Friday, as the defendant changed his lawyer in the last minute.

Lawer Do Phu and his client, whose real name is Hong Quang Minh, were present at the Superior Court of California, West Justice Center, in Westminster on Friday morning (U.S. time) as scheduled, before the attorney filed Minh Beo’s request to change lawyer to the judge.

Judge Derek J. Johnson accepted the request, allowing Mia Yamamoto to replace Do Phu in defending the 38-year-old Vietnamese, who was arrested on March 24 in the U.S. on three felony counts, including oral copulation of a minor.

Yamamoto then sought to adjourn the pretrial hearing to May 27 to give her more time to collect evidence, to which the judge agreed.

Lawyer Mia Yamamoto (L) discusses with Do Phu

Minh Beo pled not guilty at an April 15 arraignment and is slated to stand his preliminary hearing on June 10. The postponed pretrial does not affect the schedule of the preliminary hearing.

Vietnamese – American lawyer Do Phu told Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper after the court process that he is not disappointed to be replaced by another attorney, which is “not uncommon in more than 20 years of my career.”

He however was surprised as Minh Beo had never told him of such a decision, even though the lawyer had seen him in his jail cell as many as six times, with the latest visit on May 9.

“He never told me he would find a lawyer to replace me,” Do Phu said.

“I can confirm that during the course of our contract I had no money or other conflicts with Minh Beo or his family.”

However Do Phu said he would cooperate with Mia Yamamoto, showing her what he believes is vague evidence prosecutors used against the defendant.

“I will tell her all of my plans in defending Minh Beo, especially the unaccented text messages he exchanged with the undercover police,” he said.

Do Phu said he believes Mia Yamamoto is able to bring the best possible result for Minh Beo.

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