The former Stoughton cop accused of grooming Sandra Birchmore while she was a minor and then killing her when she was pregnant wants his trial heard outside of Massachusetts.

Attorneys for Matthew Farwell, who faces federal charges of killing a witness or victim in Birchmore’s death and another charge for killing the unborn baby, were granted time to file a memorandum arguing for a change of venue for his trial.

The attorneys wrote Thursday that their motion “addresses the voluminous pretrial publicity in his case, the prejudicial impact of such publicity on a potential jury pool in the District of Massachusetts, and the law and constitutional rights requiring a transfer of venue.”

Chief U.S. District Judge Denise J. Casper approved the request for time to write their motion.

Federal authorities arrested and charged Farwell with Birchmore’s killing in August of last year. Prosecutors last month unsealed a new indictment charging him with the death of the unborn baby, which according to prosecutors Birchmore excitedly told him was his. Prosecutors say the baby’s gestational age was between eight and 10 weeks.

Farwell is scheduled to be arraigned on the new charge next Friday, though the defendant will not be present as his attorneys have waived his appearance.

Authorities say that Farwell met Birchmore when as a child she joined the Police Explorers Academy, a youth program run by the Stoughton Police Department for which Farwell taught.

He quickly moved into developing a relationship with the girl 12 years his junior, according to the indictment, and that relationship turned sexual when Birchmore skipped a school event to lose her virginity to Farwell when she was 16 years old.

Birchmore learned she was pregnant in late December 2020, about a month before she would die. She reached out to Farwell to tell him the good news, but the 6-foot-4 police officer reacted in anger.

Prosecutors say that Farwell on Feb. 1, 2021, entered Birchmore’s Canton apartment and strangled her to death as he knew she was weeks pregnant with his child. He then staged the apartment to make it look like Birchmore had committed suicide.

State authorities ruled the death a suicide but then-U.S. Attorney Joshua Levy said that federal prosecutors had retained their own examiner who disagreed with that ruling.

While Massachusetts does not have a death penalty, Farwell can face such a penalty in federal court. Farwell added death penalty defense specialist Kimberly Stevens to his team in June.

Matthew Farwell (Stoughton Police Department via AP)