Detainers, Writs and Fugitives

Christian Hoel, Asst Public Defender Laura Jackson, and I presented a CLE today that was hosted by the Mecklenburg County Public Defender's Office and the Federal Defenders of Western North Carolina, Inc. on the issues of the Interstate Agreement on Detainers, other detainers, fugitives and writs.  The Interstate Agreement on Detainers (IADA) is codified in North Carolina General Statute 15A-761.  The corresponding Federal Statute can be found in 18 USC App 2.

As described in Article 1, the IADA was created to set up uniform rules for the transfer of prisoners between states who face charges in multiple jurisdictions:

The party States find that charges outstanding against a prisoner, detainers based on untried indictments, informations, or complaints and difficulties in securing speedy trial of persons already incarcerated in other jurisdictions, produce uncertainties which obstruct programs of prisoner treatment and rehabilitation. Accordingly, it is the policy of the party States and the purpose of this agreement to encourage the expeditious and orderly disposition of such charges and determination of the proper status of any and all detainers based on untried indictments, informations, or complaints. 

The IADA contains a section whereby a prisoner can request trial within a 180 period - so long as the procedures in the IADA are strictly followed. (Article III) State can also use the Act to request prisoners from other jurisdictions.

While not strictly an IADA issue (the Act only applies  to pending "new" criminal charges - not allegations of probation violation or supervised release violations), a criminal defense attorney should be aware of a 'catch 22' that can arise when a client has both state and federal charges that may be resolved close together.  If a defendant is arrested and originally in state custody, then later charged with a federal offense (or SRV allegation) - and prosecuted by federal authorities on a writ - that defendant will be returned to state custody (presumptively with a federal sentence).  If an arrangement is worked out for concurrent time to that federal sentence - despite an otherwise valid concurrent sentence - the state will retain the defendant.  After serving that state sentence, the defendant would then be transferred to serve the federal sentence.  In short, who had primary jurisdiction is an important issue to keep in mind when working out a concurrent sentence across jurisdictions - or a defendant may be required to serve out an unintentional  consecutive sentence.    

Christian Hoel provided an excellent summary of some successes he has had in Superior Court in properly enforcing the 180 time limit for prosecutions in IADA cases.

Laura Jackson reviewed the requirements for fugitives and the time limit for a Governor's Warrant.  Robert Farb's outline of the State of North Carolina Extradition Manual would be  helpful resource for extradition and fugitive questions.

For any questions regarding criminal charges, a law enforcement investigation, United States Attorney grand jury subpoena, federal indictment, computer crimes, white collar criminal (fraud) charges, or any Mecklenburg County state charges, contact the Winiker Law Firm at (704) 750-9212 or info@winikerlaw.com

Winiker Law Firm in the News

Feds: Charlotte mom wanted hitman to silence witness in diamond heist trial (VIDEO)

By Derrick Rose, Reporter CHARLOTTE, NC (WBTV) - A federal grand jury indicted a Charlotte mother on 3 counts of trying to kill or hurt federal witnesses in the trial of men accused in a cross-country diamond heist crime spree, according to records filed in U.S. District Court.
According to the 3 page indictment, Brittany Ladd, 22, "did knowingly attempt to kill V.L. with the intent to prevent the attendance and testimony of V.L. in an official proceeding." The records also said Ladd wanted to have another witness intimidated with the "threat of physical force."

See WBTV for video

Ladd's defense attorney Rick Winiker, painted a different picture of his client that is a contrast to the mugshots taken by police.

"Brittany is a full-time student, single mother of 2 young children," he told WBTV, "this has been devastating for her; she's been separated from her children." Ladd's Facebook profile listed her as a student at Central Peidmont Community College.

Winiker said Ladd has the complete support of her family and friends in Charlotte.
That was evident at the bond hearing where Ladd's relatives filled the public seating area. Her parents pleaded to U.S. District Court Judge David Keesler to grant a bond for Ladd to allow her to care for her young children.

"All of her friends and family have rallied around her and offered their unconditional support," Winiker said.
Winiker said Ladd has been cooperative with FBI investigators, even voluntarily turning over her cell phone as evidence of her innocence. During the bond hearing, Winiker said the FBI informant 'Ray' pressured Ladd to meet with he and the undercover agent via text messages.

Winiker said Ladd was a person who was easily manipulated by the informant.
He said the informant was unreliable because the only reason the informant reached out to the feds about the alleged plot was to get out of his own legal problems.
Judge Keesler ordered Ladd held without bond.

The Charlotte Observer also included a story:

Pleading her case"This has been devastating for her," Winiker said. "She has been separated from her children. She's a lifelong resident of the Charlotte area and has the unconditional support of her family, friends and church community.
"She hopes to get this matter resolved as quickly as possible so she can be reunited with her children."
At a hearing this week, Winiker argued that a government informant had persuaded Ladd to hire a hit man and had set up the meeting with the FBI agent posing as a hit man.
The defense lawyer said the informant suggested to his client that she hire a hit man, communicated with her multiple times and sent her money to help her pay her rent. That was done, he said, to manipulate her into attending the meeting with the undercover agent. Winiker called that entrapment.
The indictment against the five men alleges that the defendants conducted surveillance on jewelry stores and identify security vulnerabilities and store employees they could target to steal diamonds.
The stolen diamonds would be transported to Philadelphia to be sold at another jewelry store, according to the indictment. The conspirators would divide the profits after the sale of the diamonds.
Jewelry stores targetedOne court document says that Victor Lupis told authorities that he was part of a nationwide diamond theft enterprise that targeted jewelry stores across the country.
Lupis said he and Trey Adams stole jewelry in Nashville in February, according to one court document.
Lupis said he stole rings valued of more than $270,000, the document says, and that he and Adams traveled to Philadelphia to sell the diamonds. They were paid $64,000 by a jeweler.

Read more: http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2011/08/27/2556921/murder-plot-leads-to-charges.html#disqus_thread#ixzz1WEA0qHVa 

MacBook Not Connecting to Wireless Network FIXED

Following my blue screen of death incident before the end of the year, I upgraded to a MacBook Pro - it's my first foray into the world of Apple computing - and it's been a generally excellent experience so far.  Among other concerns that have been allayed, I have not had a problem accessing files on my networked backup server.


One problem, however, was access to my home wireless network.  It is a Belkin router with WPA encryption enabled. The MacBook accessed it properly earlier - but stopped working entirely a few days ago.


A quick internet search revealed that this is not a unique problem.  I followed a number of basic and advanced self-help guides that included:

• Start/restart the router and modem
• Verify the password and encryption settings (use WPA) via ethernet connection to the router (use Explorer or Safari with an ip address of 192.168.1.1 [Linksys] or 192.168.2.1 [Belkin and others]) 
• Delete existing settings by navigating to Finder-Mac HD-Library-Preferences-System Configuration and delete the files marked airport preferences and network identification - empty the trash and restart the computer => try to log back on to the network

All of that didn't work - AND your PC is accessing the wireless network without a problem?  Don't spend 40 minutes on hold with Apple Care like I did -  change the password.  That's right - I changed the password and was able to log in without a problem.

Maybe it's coincidence, or something that contributed to the problem, but it also helped my Droid X access the wireless router - I had also experienced Wi-Fi conection problems with that device as well.


EDIT - I have also noticed when connecting to a friend's network, etc, a conflict or connectivity problem arises when I try to connect both the macbook and another wireless device such as Wii or Droid.  As explained above, the password change solves it - but I find I have to turn one off if it would be otherwise impolite to ask to change the wireless password.  I have not thoroughly researched the phenomena - or experimented with re-creating it - merely anecdotal observation at this point.

For any questions regarding criminal charges, a law enforcement investigation, United States Attorney grand jury subpoena, federal indictment, computer crimes, white collar criminal (fraud) charges, or any Mecklenburg County state charges, contact the Winiker Law Firm at (704) 750-9212 or info@winikerlaw.com

News Roundup 2010

Winiker Law Firm in the News, 2010
Cyberbullying

Matthews Police Department Charge Local man under new Cyber-Bully Statute

Arts' attorney defends his client, saying there can be many different interpretations of the law.

"It can be very subjective and in this case, the Matthews Police, while they're doing their best to help the community, in this case jumped to conclusions," said Rick Winiker, Arts' defense attorney on cyberbullying,

Click here for Video

Prosecutors Drop Charge of Cyberbullying

"My client is relieved that the district attorney's office eventually did the right thing and dismissed these charges," Winiker said. "He would like to focus on moving on with his life and putting all of this behind him"

Winiker Appointed Trustee for missing attorney, Lyle Yurko
High Profile Attorney Missing for Months

 Video here



 Additional Video Here

A Charlotte attorney has seemingly disappeared and now the state bar is taking action.

Many of Lyle Yurko's friends say they haven't seen him for months. Neither have his clients.

"His friends are very concerned for him and they wish him the very best," said attorney Fredrick Winiker, who has been appointed trustee over Yurko's practice. "It's very unusual. It's a process that is designed by the state bar to help address situations where there is a sole practitioner attorney."  

Other Stories in 2010

Gang Members Good Kids who fell into Wrong Crowd

Police Seek Suspect in Shooting

Charlotte at dusk

Charlotte at dusk

The Charlotte skyline at dusk as seen from Morehead Street.

For any questions regarding criminal charges, a law enforcement investigation, United States Attorney grand jury subpoena, federal indictment, computer crimes, white collar criminal (fraud) charges, or any Mecklenburg County state charges, contact the Winiker Law Firm at (704) 750-9212 or info@winikerlaw.com

Study Linking Vaccinations to Autism Reported to be Fraudulent

The Sunday Times, NPR and other media outlets report that the 1998 study by Andrew Wakefield linking the Mumps Measles and Rubella (MMR) vaccinations to increased incidents of autism worldwide was based on altered and fabricated data. That report led to a sharp decrease in vaccinations by parents concerned about autism - as well as increases in measles infections in England and the United States.


NPR reports 

The analysis, by British journalist Brian Deer, found that despite the claim in Wakefield's paper that the 12 children studied were normal until they had the MMR shot, five had previously documented developmental problems. Deer also found that all the cases were somehow misrepresented when he compared data from medical records and the children's parents.

Wakefield could not be reached for comment despite repeated calls and requests to the publisher of his recent book, which claims there is a connection between vaccines and autism that has been ignored by the medical establishment. Wakefield now lives in the U.S. where he enjoys a vocal following including celebrity supporters like Jenny McCarthy.

McCarthy and others have been staunch supporters of Wakefield, who has been stripped of his medical license in Great Britain in 2010.  His paper was retracted by the British medical journal The Lancet in February 2010.   McCarthy, and Jim Carey, issued this statement last year, saying in part:

The press has been deeply misled in the way The Lancet retraction, and Dr. Wakefield’s mock trial, have been characterized. Led by the pharmaceutical companies and their well-compensated spokespeople, Dr. Wakefield is being vilified through a well-orchestrated smear campaign designed to prevent this important new work from seeing the light of day.

British journalist Brian Deer authored a new article for the Sunday Times on his investigation of Wakefield and his work. The original Wakefield article in the Lancet was later renounced by 10 of its 13 authors.


For any questions regarding criminal charges, a law enforcement investigation, United States Attorney grand jury subpoena, federal indictment, computer crimes, white collar criminal (fraud) charges, or any Mecklenburg County state charges, contact the Winiker Law Firm at (704) 750-9212 or info@winikerlaw.com

The New Year, Computer Security and the Blue Screen of Death

December 30, 2010, 9:30 am - I was on the phone with my accountant, David McClure, discussing end of the year tax records and new equipment purchases for 2011, when I mentioned that my Dell laptop, almost four years old, was showing signs of fatigue.

She overheard me.  

20 minutes later - catastrophic hard drive failure.  I've since removed the drive from my laptop and bought an enclosure, but I don't yet know if any data can be recovered. 

Today, before you renew your gym membership or start buying organic/local foods - take the time to back up your hard drive AND change your account passwords.

For small business owners who are doing their own IT work - it's easy to let the weekly backups slip to the bottom of the 'to do' pile.  But especially if you are using Outlook - key documents and emails may disappear at the drop of a hat.  (Remember - look for that *.pst file - which is the heart of where Outlook stores your emails and attachments)

Massive storage has never been cheaper. Ads in today's paper are running specials on one terabyte (TB -1000 gigabytes) drives for $70.  As a part of my unexpected computer upgrade over the last 48 hours, I picked up a 2 TB external hard drive on Amazon for $99.  TigerDirect is a great website for screaming deals on external drives and other computer accessories.  If you aren't into clicking and dragging and want an easy backup process - Clickfree offers some great products for easy backup.

While I was upgrading my system this weekend to a new MacBook Pro (aside: the key Microsoft Office suite programs are available for $120 for a Mac) - I was reminded during checkout that my credit had been compromised last year (I had to answer a myriad of questions from the bank to confirm my identity).

I think it's also worthwhile to take a few minutes to log into your bank, email, insurance and credit accounts and update your passwords. Compromise could occur through a phishing scam - but even if you think that could never happen, that you're safe from key loggers, white vans with antennas outside your home monitoring encrypted signals, etc, it just takes a minute - and I think better safe than sorry.

For any questions regarding criminal charges, a law enforcement investigation, grand jury subpoena, federal indictment, computer crimes, white collar criminal (fraud) charges, or any Mecklenburg County state charges, contact the Winiker Law Firm at (704) 750-9212 or info@winikerlaw.com