Opinion
CRIM. NO. 08-00327-CG.
November 20, 2009
ORDER
This matter is before the court on the United States' motion (Doc. 356) for review of the Magistrate Judges' order detaining the defendant pending trial. The court has reviewed the record de novo by carefully reviewing the filings pertinent to release or detention, listening to the recording of the detention hearing held before the Magistrate Judge in the Middle District of Florida, reviewing the exhibits from the detention hearing, and reviewing the pretrial services report from the Middle District of Florida. The court agrees with the Magistrate Judge's assessment during the detention hearing that the evidence requires that the defendant be detained pending trial because there is a serious risk that the defendant will flee. He has spent the last year and a half living outside this country, knowing that he was under investigation and, later, under indictment. Although he came to the decision to return to this country and made arrangements to turn himself in, the evidence is clear that he could just as easily reverse that decision and again absent himself from the court. Accordingly, the order of the Magistrate Judge detaining the defendant pending trial is AFFIRMED.
One of the exhibits was a recording of a call-in radio show during which the defendant called in and spoke of the fact that he was, at the time, a fugitive and that he knew he was a flight risk.