Three months after the corrupt protection contractor often called “Fats Leonard” openly, and simply, escaped from his luxurious dwelling detention association in San Diego, the circumstances behind how the Malaysian tycoon pulled it off are nonetheless underneath wraps.
Calls for from members of the U.S. Home and Senate for extra particulars about Leonard Francis’ embarrassing escape have been dismissed by the Division of Justice and met with silence from the Administrative Workplace of the Courts, which handles the nonjudicial, bureaucratic enterprise for the federal courts.
And final week, San Diego federal Choose Janis Sammartino, who oversaw Francis’ uncommon, yearslong medical furlough that allowed him to reside exterior of jail, rebuffed a requirement from protection attorneys for extra particulars about Francis’ well being and dwelling circumstances.
“Who was or wasn’t liable for Leonard Francis’ supervision and monitoring is just not the problem,” Joseph Mancano, the lawyer for convicted retired Capt. David Newland, informed Sammartino throughout a listening to Wednesday. As an alternative, he stated, the problem was that the protection was entitled to that data earlier than the trial, to indicate jurors that whereas Francis had been a cooperating witness for years, he was given extraordinary advantages by the federal government.
Newland is certainly one of 4 former Navy officers who had been convicted of conspiracy and bribery prices at a prolonged trial this 12 months. In post-trial motions, they stated Francis’ dwelling circumstances — renting a multimillion-dollar mansion within the Carmel Valley space, with servants, all of the meals he might afford, and what turned out to be lax safety — ought to have been disclosed earlier than trial. Additionally they stated Francis flouted circumstances of his launch that prohibited him from possessing cellphones, computer systems or digital gadgets.
For now, the questions surrounding Francis’ escape stay unanswered. After slicing off a GPS monitoring bracelet early on the morning of Sept. 4, Francis fled throughout the border into Mexico. He continued on to Cuba after which Venezuela, the place he was arrested by Interpol brokers 16 days after his flight.
Francis has requested for asylum there. The U.S. authorities can search his extradition, however the diplomatic relationship between the 2 nations is fraught, and getting him again to San Diego might show difficult. In October, the Venezuela Supreme Court docket gave the U.S. two months to file an extradition request.
A spokesperson for the U.S. Lawyer’s Workplace in San Diego declined to remark when requested if an extradition request has been filed but. Beforehand, the DOJ stated it doesn’t touch upon extradition requests till the topic of the request is again within the U.S.
The DOJ and Pretrial Companies, the court docket company accountable for monitoring his dwelling detention, have declined repeated requests by the Union-Tribune for extra details about his escape.
Congress is inquiring, too. In October, Republican members of the Home Committee on Oversight and Reform despatched a letter to Lawyer Normal Merrick Garland slamming the “collective failure” by the Division of Justice in reference to Francis’ flight. It sought paperwork and communications about Francis amongst DOJ workers; between DOJ workers and state or native legislation enforcement companies; and between DOJ workers and U.S. Probation and Pretrial Companies.
The request has not been fulfilled. In an Oct. 28 court docket submitting, Assistant U.S. Lawyer David Chu stated no paperwork have been supplied to Congress due to “long-standing insurance policies concerning congressional inquiries and requests for data in the course of the pendency of felony issues …”
In November, Sen. Charles Grassley, an Iowa Republican who’s the rating minority member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, despatched an identical request to the Administrative Workplace of the Courts.
The senator wished details about how Francis was supervised by Pretrial Companies in addition to data on his dwelling preparations and different topic areas like the precise timeline of his escape. He stated he wished a response by Nov. 23, however a spokesman for Grassley stated Friday none had been acquired.
Francis is the previous chief govt of Glenn Protection Marine Asia, a ship-servicing firm that supported Navy vessels in Asian ports. For many years, prosecutors stated he plied Navy officers with presents and money together with meals, the providers of prostitutes and journey.
In return, lots of the beneficiaries helped Francis by giving him data on ship actions or pending Navy contracts, operating interference towards ship-servicing firms competing with Francis, and conserving him apprised of investigations by suspicious authorities officers into GDMA’s enterprise.
In 2015, he pleaded responsible to bribery and fraud prices in a large authorities investigation and agreed to cooperate with the probe. Nonetheless, since late 2017 he has been dwelling exterior of the downtown federal lockup underneath the medical furlough association. His launch was accredited and supervised by Sammartino and Pretrial Companies.
His exact medical issues weren’t disclosed for years, nevertheless it was identified that he was recognized with kidney most cancers in 2017. Protection attorneys for the previous Navy officers have stated they had been entitled to extra data on his medical situation and dwelling preparations, however motions filed earlier than the trial searching for that data had been rebuffed.
After the trial and after Francis’ escape, protection attorneys once more pressed for the knowledge. In motions, they contended Francis’ medical situation was not so dire, and that the required round the clock personal safety he was paying for — which was a situation of his launch — was not around the clock or strong.
Some guards informed reporters after the escape that they had been largely confined to a windowless storage on the dwelling, that Francis had relations dwelling with him and entry to telephones and computer systems.
The attorneys contended that Francis had perpetrated a fraud on the court docket and stated prosecutors had enabled it by persevering with to endorse the association so Francis would proceed to assist them.
However at a listening to Wednesday, Sammartino largely rejected the requests for extra data. She stated if the prosecutors had any data that Francis had defrauded the court docket that it ought to be turned over, however additional particulars about his medical situation and the furlough weren’t wanted by the protection.
The difficulty is just not completely over, nonetheless. Protection attorneys will probably increase it as a part of a sweeping movement for a brand new trial to be filed in March. If the decision stands, sentencing for the officers is now set for August 2023.
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