A trial date looms for the federal criminal case against Shelby County Commissioner Edmund Ford Jr. on bribery and tax evasion charges.

Ford’s attorney Michael Scholl and government prosecutor David Pritchard agreed during a Tuesday, May 13, court hearing to pick a trial date in the case on July 21, the next time that Ford will appear in court. 

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“I don’t want to come back in July and start looking in the spring,” U.S. District Judge Thomas Parker said Wednesday. “Let’s get this case moving.”

Ford appeared in court Tuesday alongside his mother and father, Myrna Ford and Edmund Ford Sr.

Ford Jr. has been indicted on one count of alleged bribery and kickbacks and six counts of attempted tax evasion. The charges stem from a kick-back scheme involving three local nonprofits that received grants during Ford Jr.’s time on the Memphis City Council and the Shelby County Commission.

His case is still largely in discovery, Scholl also said Tuesday, noting that he has received everything related to the case from the government. 

“I’ve gotten the gist of everything with the case ... the tedious part will be digging through that in regards to the defense of the case,” Scholl told Parker.

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Discovery in the case includes 80,000 different items, according to Scholl, as well as 400 gigabytes of phone data or “dumps.” The data turned over to Scholl comes from a collection of seven iPhones and iPads that were seized as part of the government’s case. 

Not all of the devices belong to Ford, however, Scholl said. He declined to share to whom else they belonged.