photo by: Kim Callahan/Journal-World

Shaleah N. Kauffman, left, is pictured with one of her attorneys, Anshul Banga, and Douglas County Judge Sally Pokorny on Tuesday, March 17, 2026.

A felony domestic violence case that was set to go to trial on Monday was derailed at the very last minute Friday, when one of the defendant’s appointed attorneys was allowed to withdraw from the case.

The case will now begin anew with a different court-appointed attorney.

Attorney Michael Clarke had been representing Shaleah Kauffman in a criminal matter in which she’s accused of felony domestic battery and aggravated battery. As the Journal-World reported, a man testified that Kauffman drunkenly attacked him two separate times in the fall of 2023.

Kauffman has two previous domestic battery convictions, according to court records.

It’s not clear why Clarke left the case at the 11th hour. At a conference Friday morning to finalize trial matters, he asked Senior Judge Nancy Parrish to clear the courtroom so that he could privately explain his reasons for wanting off the case. Such motions are commonly taken up in private to protect confidential matters between attorneys and their clients.

Parrish spoke to Clarke and his client for more than half an hour, then indicated that a different attorney, Razmi Tahirkheli, would be taking over for Clarke and that the case would be delayed again for Tahirkheli to get up to speed.

Kauffman also has two court-appointed attorneys to handle the misdemeanors she was charged with: endangering a child, theft, criminal damage to property and violation of a protective order.

On Wednesday, Parrish denied Clarke’s motion to dismiss after seeing an approximately hourlong video of police interactions with Kauffman leading up to her arrest. Parrish did, though, agree that some of Kauffman’s statements on the video should be excluded from evidence based on the timing of a Miranda warning. She also allowed the state, over Clarke’s objection, to call a doctor to testify that the alleged victim had a broken ankle.

Kauffman’s next court date is June 10, when the parties will discuss a new trial date.