Refitt case: jury has evidently reached a verdict.
Guilty on all counts.
5 counts total. Judge will now set some more dates. She’ll probably set a sentencing date. That’s usually the next step. Although I’ve had cases where you set post trial motions briefing first & see how those turn out because it can affect the sentencing, so you wait to set that.
Judge Friedrich set sentencing for June 8.
Between now & then, the Probation Department prepares reports & the lawyers prepare objections to those & memos for the judge. It takes at least 3 months to do all the stuff in federal court.
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Denney Case: What happened today & what happens now?
You could hear the frustration in Judge Faruqui's voice that the Govt left Denney sitting around for weeks & didn't give him the Preliminary Hearing he was entitled to in Texas but he thought he could do nothing about it. /1
On the one hand, he did take the govt to task for screwing up the procedure because they are the ones that are supposed to be handling it & doing so properly & it's not small potatoes when you're talking about liberty. /2
On the other hand, he's a magistrate judge & he's right that that does limit the power that he personally has & one of those limitation is that he can't override the ruling of another magistrate (per a decision of the Chief Judge in our court). /3
Update on Jan6 Defendant Being Held Illegally. 3/5/22
@shipwreckedcrew filed another motion:
"DEFENDANT LUCAS DENNEY’S EMERGENCY MOTION TO DISMISS AND FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE FROM CUSTODY" asserting a violation of the statutory requirement to indict in 30 days that I explained./1
He lays out the statutes, 18 USC 1361 & 1362, and applies them to Denney's facts: he was arrested on Dec 13, 2021 & is still not indicted yet as of today, March 5, 2022 - 82 days later. So case MUST be dismissed.
Before folks say, I agree his math on the 30 days (or 40 if 10 days are excluded for "reasonable" time for transport from TX to DC) is wrong. Looks like he went from the date of the detention hearing instead of arrest. He filed an errata to fix it. Link drive.google.com/file/d/128tE3F… /3
You don't see this very often in federal court, but one of the Jan 6 Defendants I think is actually being held illegally. I will explain. The Defendant is Lucas Denney. His case number in DC is: 21mj686. /1
/2 He has a slew of charges and an arrest warrant was issued for him in December 2021. He was charged on a complaint, NOT an indictment.
He was arrested on December 14, 2021 in Texas and taken before a magistrate there. /2
He appeared before the TX magistrate on December 14, 2021 for what the federal rules call an "Initial Appearance." That is just what it sounds like: it's the first time a judicial officer sees you after you are arrested. It's to make sure you have been legally arrested. /3
This is what it looks like when you enter into a written plea agreement about the Sentencing Guidelines. It’s from the OathKeeper plea today. He’s agreeing all these added on levels apply & he won’t be able to challenge any of it at his sentencing. /1
He’s got little to no criminal record so, after getting some levels off for pleading guilty, he’s at level 29, which in his history category translates to 87 to 108 months incarceration. /2
In his case, his lawyers think that stipulating to all of this is worth it for him because they are getting the cooperation deal in return, which will take levels off - sometimes as much as half the levels - at the time of sentencing. /3