Pierce County Superior Court Judge D. Gary Steiner allowed Jennifer Rice’s previous lawyer, public defender Melanie MacDonald, to quit the case Wednesday. MacDonald’s colleagues John Chin and Jane Melby are taking over.

The reason MacDonald is stepping aside wasn’t made public.

The decision came after Steiner briefly met in his chambers with deputy prosecutor Grant Blinn, MacDonald, Chin and Richard Whitehead, a supervising attorney at the Department of Assigned Counsel.

After allowing the change of counsel, Steiner postponed a hearing on a motion MacDonald made recently, asking that a portion of the law under which Rice is charged be declared unconstitutional.

In the motion, MacDonald contended that the law wrongly curtails the powers of the prosecutors pursuing the case against Rice. She asked the judge to dismiss a special allegation that classifies one of the crimes Rice is charged with as “predatory.”

That designation – required when a teacher is accused of certain sex crimes – invokes stiff sentencing requirements: a minimum term of 25 years or the high end of the standard sentencing range, whichever is longer.

In Rice’s case, that’s the high end: 261/2 years.

MacDonald argued that the law improperly usurps the discretion of local prosecutors by requiring them to file a certain charge in a certain situation.

Blinn disagreed, arguing that the Legislature was within its rights to prescribe how certain crimes are charged and resolved.

Steiner will hear arguments on the motion July 8.

The judge postponed Rice’s trial until October to give Chin and Melby a chance to prepare. The trial had been scheduled to start Wednesday.

Rice is accused of several sex crimes. Prosecutors allege she had sex with a 10-year-old boy she taught at McKinley Elementary School. They also contend she had sex with a 15-year-old boy whose relationship to her hasn’t been disclosed.

Rice has pleaded not guilty.

Adam Lynn: 253-597-8644