Bid by Wilkes to get out of prison denied

[cascadiance]

Source: San Diego Union Tribune

By Greg Moran
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER

12:52 p.m. May 2, 2008

A federal appeals court denied the bid of former defense contractor Brent Wilkes to get out of prison immediately, but left the door open for the him to try again.

The order by a panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeal is the latest turn in Wilkes' now monthlong effort to pull together enough bond money to be free.

The court had ruled March 27 Wilkes was entitled to bail pending his appeal of his bribery, fraud and conspiracy convictions stemming from the Randy “Duke” Cunningham scandal. He was sentenced to 12 years in prison by U.S. District Court Judge Larry Burns.

...

The order issued Thursday said Wilkes can seek a new hearing in front of Burns. The appeals court said Burns can count some retirement money pledged by Wilkes family members as well as the value of a Chula Vista property in considering a bond package.

...

Read more: http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/politics/cunningham/20080502-1252-bn2wilkes.html

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Looks like this battle for Wilkes to try to weasel out of business is continuing to take its twists and turns, but it looks like he's also running out of options! Yay!

[Mister Ed]

1. Let him sing if he wants out

Betcha he could reveal plenty about higher-ups.

[Robbien]

2. This judge, Burns, is not buying Wilkes' bullshit

http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2008/04/19/news/sandiego/e9942b0e7afa81698825742f0073bcc7.txt

Burns said he wants to be sure the government can collect on Wilkes' bail if necessary. He said he doesn't trust that a "stubborn" Wilkes will be able to stick to bail conditions "if it's not consistent with his agenda."


The article also says: Wilkes now says he is broke and is asking the court to appoint public defenders to represent him on appeal.

Wilkes is a real piece of work.

[cascadiance]

3. It was funny, when I was at an Armenian Genocide meeting, where Geragos was speaking...

... just last week and giving speeches on his legal efforts to help with Armenians efforts on this issue, some comments came up and he concurred that it sounded like he didn't have much love for Judge Burns. Note that he's Wilkes lawyer.

I was tricked into attending thinking it was a seminar at UCSD that would have been attended by people like law students, etc. and I was prepared to ask him whether or not he was able to see the court documents from the Kontogianis case, which was made secret, and asked for by Wilkes' defense, and if so, how could he have seen them when he's reportedly said he didn't want to undergo a background check to get a security clearance. I was going to ask how he could see them and not have them released to the public.

Unfortunately though perhaps fortunately, I thought better of it, because I didn't want to piss off a lot of Armenians standing around me who might have seen me as trying to disrupt their event, especially if they found out that I'd lived in Turkey when I was young myself. Not sure he would have felt as pressured to give me an honest answer in that environment either.

However, I do find it interesting that he did make some comments towards Burns that weren't what one would call "complimentary".