Opinion
Crim. No. 12-133 (KSH)
04-02-2012
United States v. Socara
U.S. Department of Justice
Hon.
United States District Court
U.S. Post Office and Courthouse
Dear Judge Hayden:
The Court has scheduled this above-referenced case for trial on June 18, 2012.
Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure 15 (h) provides that parties may by agreement take and use a deposition at trial with the Court's consent. The Government has obtained defense counsel's agreement to take video-taped depositions of two prospective witnesses, Mohammad Ghorbani and his wife Bahareh Namazi. The Government now petitions the Court for its consent to this proposed arrangement.
The Government is making this entreaty on behalf of the prospective witnesses. It is the regular practice of the prospective witnesses that in the spring they travel to Iran and stay for months in order to visit with and care for the husband's elderly father. This year the visit is particularly pressing because the elderly father, in his eighties, has cancer and is daily calling his son, Mr. Ghorbani, asking Mr. Ghorbani why he is not yet in Iran.
If the prospective witnesses are deposed by video-tape and their testimonies preserved for trial, which defense counsel believes it will be prepared to do in three weeks, the prospective witnesses could then travel to Iran to be with and take care of Mr. Ghorbani's elderly and sick father. The Government respectfully petitions the Court for the Court's consent.
Respectfully yours,
PAUL J. FISHMAN
United States Attorney
By: BOHDAN VITVITSKY
FRANCES C. BAJADA
Assistant U.S. Attorneys
cc: John Yauch and Lisa Mack, AFPDs With the understanding that the parties have agreed to take video-taped depositions of two proposed witnesses, as described more fully in the above letter to the Court, in order to preserve their testimony for trial, the Court pursuant to Fed. R. Crim. P. 15(h) now grants its consent to the taking and use of said depositions.
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HON. KATHARINE S. HAYBEN