Filed: Mar. 10, 2016
Latest Update: Mar. 10, 2016
Summary: ORDER MAX O. COGBURN, Jr. , District Judge . THIS MATTER is before the court on defendant's Motion to Review Magistrate [Judge's] Denial of Motion to Authorize Defendant to Travel Outside the United States. Defendant seeks leave to travel to Jamaica for four weeks to attend the funeral of her mother. Both the government and probation oppose this motion and the magistrate judge has denied the request to alter the terms of pretrial supervision. This court concurs with the magistrate judge.
Summary: ORDER MAX O. COGBURN, Jr. , District Judge . THIS MATTER is before the court on defendant's Motion to Review Magistrate [Judge's] Denial of Motion to Authorize Defendant to Travel Outside the United States. Defendant seeks leave to travel to Jamaica for four weeks to attend the funeral of her mother. Both the government and probation oppose this motion and the magistrate judge has denied the request to alter the terms of pretrial supervision. This court concurs with the magistrate judge. W..
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ORDER
MAX O. COGBURN, Jr., District Judge.
THIS MATTER is before the court on defendant's Motion to Review Magistrate [Judge's] Denial of Motion to Authorize Defendant to Travel Outside the United States. Defendant seeks leave to travel to Jamaica for four weeks to attend the funeral of her mother. Both the government and probation oppose this motion and the magistrate judge has denied the request to alter the terms of pretrial supervision. This court concurs with the magistrate judge.
While defendant is a citizen of the United States, she was born in Jamaica and has substantial ties to that country. Further, after being interviewed by agents in 2013 concerning the subject matter of this criminal action, wire fraud, she left the United States and resided in Jamaica until her return in December 2015, when she was arrested. There is nothing in this record to indicate that defendant self-surrendered; rather, it appears that she was apprehended when she returned to the United States after a two-year absence. Finally, it appears that defendant, if convicted, will face imprisonment.
Based on all of these factors, the court concludes that no condition or combination of conditions will assure defendant's return if this court permits the proposed travel. While the court is sympathetic to plaintiff's desire to pay last respects to her mother, she is presently facing serious charges for defrauding elderly victims of substantial sums in a phony lottery/fee scheme, keeping some of the proceeds for herself (nearing half a million dollars) and sending the remainder of funds, which may well be substantially greater, to co-conspirators in Jamaica and in Georgia.
Having considered defendant's motion and reviewed the pleadings, and finding that the magistrate judge properly concluded that allowing the proposed travel would create a substantial risk that defendant would not return, the court enters the following Order.
ORDER
IT IS, THEREFORE, ORDERED that defendant's Motion to Review Magistrate [Judge's] Denial of Motion to Authorize Defendant to Travel Outside the United States (#23) is GRANTED, and upon such review, the decision of the magistrate judge is AFFIRMED.
