A man convicted in December of gross sexual imposition will get his fifth appointed attorney to represent him in the case.

Tilmer Everett, 36, was charged with the Class AA felony in May 2006 after an 18-year-old Bismarck woman told police Everett had raped her.

At a court hearing Wednesday morning, Dickinson attorney Jay Greenwood moved to withdraw as counsel for Everett. South Central District Judge Tom Schneider allowed Greenwood to withdraw. Everett had not been transferred from the state penitentiary to the Burleigh County Courthouse for the hearing, but Schneider granted the withdrawal anyway, saying Everett had written a letter to the court requesting a new attorney to handle his post-conviction relief proceedings.

Burleigh County Assistant State's Attorney Brandi Sasse Russell explained that post-conviction relief motions are attempts by defendants to prove that something was done wrong during the trial to the point that the case should be thrown out. She said Everett's hearing had been scheduled for Friday but will now be rescheduled when a new attorney is appointed.

Russell handled the Wednesday hearing for Assistant State's Attorney Cynthia Feland, who was out of the office. Feland has been the prosecutor on the case since Everett was charged.

Schneider said on Wednesday that he would appoint one last attorney for Everett. He said it will be Everett's last chance to have an appointed attorney.

"We're running out of attorneys," he said.

The new attorney will be the fifth to handle Everett's case. Two Bismarck attorneys were allowed to withdraw from the case before Greenwood was appointed, and a Mandan attorney is handling a possible appeal to the Supreme Court.

Bismarck attorney Susan Schmidt was appointed to represent Everett after he was charged. She filed a motion in August 2006 asking that she be removed from the case, and South Central District Judge Bruce Romanick removed her.

In the motion, Schmidt said Everett had yelled and cursed at her, refused to work with a private investigator and wanted her to subpoena witnesses without giving her any reasons why they should be subpoenaed.

Bismarck attorney Todd Schwarz was appointed to represent Everett following Schmidt's withdrawal. Schwarz filed a motion to withdraw as counsel in October 2006, citing similar reasons as Schmidt. He stayed on the case but filed another motion to withdraw in November 2006, because Everett wanted to represent himself.

Schwarz remained on the case as "stand-by" counsel during Everett's three-day trial.

Everett represented himself during his sentencing in March. He maintained his innocence throughout court proceedings, saying he had consensual sex with the 18-year-old woman. He accused police, prosecutors and Romanick of working against him while making several profanity-laced statements during the 30-minute sentencing.

Romanick sentenced him to 30 years in prison. Romanick was activated by the Army Reserve on June 4 and expects to be on active duty with the 87th Legal Services Organization for one year. Schneider was assigned to take over the case for Romanick.

Everett filed a notice of appeal with the North Dakota Supreme Court about a week after he was sentenced, and Mandan attorney Ben Pulkrabek was appointed to represent him on appeal.

Everett filed a motion for post-conviction relief in June. Greenwood said during Wednesday's hearing he believed he had been appointed out of Dickinson to handle those proceedings because two appointed attorneys out of Bismarck had already had conflicts working with Everett. He said his reasons for asking to be taken off the case appeared similar to Schmidt's and Schwarz's reasons.

Greenwood said Everett would not respond to anything he didn't agree with while they worked on the case.

"It's not so much a matter of not getting along," he said, noting that he could have conversations with Everett without a problem.

(Reach reporter Jenny Michael at 250-8225 or jenny.michael@;bismarcktribune.com.)