The federal court in Anchorage, Alaska has ordered a hearing next month on the motion filed by an American Samoan woman who has been charged with stealing more than $20,000 by filing false federal tax returns with the Internal Revenue Service for 28 American Samoa tax payers.

Pepe Anetipa, who moved from the territory to Alaska, where she operated a tax preparer business, was arraigned last month on 28 counts of false claims against the IRS and trial is currently set for Feb. 8 this year with final pretrial conference on Jan. 30.

But in a motion filed early this month, Anetipa’s defense attorney, Assistant Federal Public Defender Jamie McGrady pointed out that this case is unusual and it is appropriate to vacate the current trial date because of the large volume of discovery currently produced by the government for the defense.

“At this time the discovery consists of over 8,000 pages of discovery. Ms. Anetipa resides in Kent, Washington,” McGrady argued. “Additional time will be necessary to arrange for lengthy meetings to review the large volume of discovery.”

McGrady requested an order declaring the case “complex and unusual”, under federal law and also asked the court for an order continuing the current trial date to late March 2015. 

According to the defense, government does not oppose the motion, which also included a proposed order for the court to consider.

Instead of granting the request, U.S. District Court Judge Sharon L. Gleason—who is presiding over Anetipa’s case—ordered a Jan. 22 hearing. No other details were available yesterday on electronic court records, but it’s expected that both sides will provide oral statements on their reasons behind the motion.