MILFORD, PA — The preliminary hearing for accused cop-killer Matthew Frein had been scheduled for December 9, but has been pushed back because one of Frein’s court-appointed attorneys has been granted permission to withdraw from the case, and the court has granted the remaining attorney’s request for more time to bring a new attorney up to speed on the case.

Robert Bernathy was appointed as one of Frein’s attorneys on November 3 at $178 per hour, but Bernathy is also the part-time chief public defender for Pike County, and he said in court documents that there is a significant risk that “representation of the defendant may be materially limited by the potential for both professional and personal conflicts of interest.”

Judge Gregory Chelak granted Bernathy’s request to withdraw, but the appointment of co-counsel Michael Weinstein remains in effect.

Pike County District Attorney Raymond Tonkin objected to the delay in the preliminary hearing, in part because a witness had been subpoenaed from Louisiana and had been scheduled to testify on December 9.

But in a filing, Weinstein said it would take time for the new co-counsel to review the entire case in preparing for the preliminary hearing, and judge Shannon Muir granted the request for a continuance. The new date is scheduled for January 5, 2015, at 9 a.m. at the Pike County Courthouse in Milford.

Frein is accused of shooting and killing trooper Bryon Dickson on the night of September 12 and of seriously wounding Alex Douglass in an ambush at the state police barracks in Blooming Grove.

Frein was captured on October 30 after a 48-day manhunt which involved hundreds of local, state and federal officials and cost taxpayers about $11 million.