Opinion
1:22CR231
08-19-2022
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, Plaintiff(s), v. SOLOMON ODUBAJO, Defendant(s).
OPINION AND ORDER
Dan Aaron Polster United States District Judge
Defendant Solomon Odubajo is facing serious drug charges which carry a substantial mandatory minimum sentence and a potential life sentence. The Indictment charges that Odubajo trafficked over one kilogram of fentanyl pills from Arizona, where he lives, to Ohio. He has a lengthy criminal record, and he tried to evade police in Cleveland on April 14, 2022 by driving more than 100 mph on I-90. Following a detention hearing Magistrate Judge Baughman ordered Odubajo detained. He appealed the order of detention, and on May 25 this Court affirmed the order of detention.
Odubajo has moved for an emergency furlough to Arizona to be with his grandfather, who just entered hospice, and the rest of his family, for a two-week period. Odubajo maintains that his grandfather was the most stable and present person his entire life. (ECF doc. 32). The Government opposes the release.
This Court has on occasion granted emergency furloughs for detainees to attend a funeral or to be with a dying close relative, and the Court is mindful of the benefit such release would have for Odubajo and his grandfather. That being said, the Court affirmed the order of detention after carefully reviewing the record and determining that nothing short of pre-trial detention would protect the community and assure Odubajo's presence at future court proceedings. In its Opposition brief (ECF Doc. #34), the government recites much of this evidence, including the large amounts of cash Odubajo was carrying when he was arrested in Atlanta in February, 2022 and when he was arrested in this case in Cleveland on April 14, 2022.
The Court believes that the strong evidence that warranted pretrial detention overrides the sympathy the Court has for Odubajo and his grandfather. Odubajo and his wife have three young children in Arizona. While he reported to pretrial services that he and his wife own a food truck, his wife reported that the food truck business closed in 2021 and that Odubajo works as a music promoter but does not earn much money. She reported that they live primarily on the proceeds from his GoFundMe account. There is therefore strong circumstantial evidence that Odubajo has been supporting his family by drug trafficking, and there would be considerable temptation for him to resume this conduct were he to return home to Arizona. There is no other logical explanation for why he was carrying all this cash on two occasions. Plus Arizona is close to the border with Mexico, and the government has recited in its brief a conversation found on Odubajo's phone about drug prices in Mexico and how Odubajo had been given a bad kilogram of drugs and was trying to get his money back from the seller. Accordingly, Odubajo's Emergency Motion for Temporary Release is DENIED.
IT IS SO ORDERED.