TRANSCRIPT of Status Conference as to Amber Rewis Bruey held on 10/12/21 before Judge… — USA v. Bruey et al (Dkt. 129)

Record facts

U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida · No. 2:21-cr-00074 · Doc. 129 · 2022-08-23 · Docket on CourtListener

Summary

A transcript of a status conference held October 12, 2021 before U.S. District Judge Thomas P. Barber in United States v. Anthony James Bruey and Amber Rewis Bruey, No. 2:21-cr-00074, in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida, Fort Myers Division, filed August 23, 2022 as Document 129. Trent Reichling, for the United States, describes the case as one in which the defendants are alleged to have filed false PPP and EIDL loan applications and received just under a million dollars. Defense counsel for Amber Rewis Bruey relays a request for a three-month continuance, citing voluminous discovery. The Court sets the next status conference for 12/16 at 10:30, allows extending the motion deadline for 90 days, and makes an ends-of-justice finding under the Speedy Trial Act. The five-page transcript is certified by the official court reporter.

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UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 
MIDDLE DISTRICT OF FLORIDA 
FORT MYERS DIVISION 
 
 
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA,      ) Fort Myers, Florida 
                               ) 
                               ) Case 2:21-CR-74-JLB-MRM 
Plaintiff                      ) 
                               ) Wednesday, October 12, 2021 
vs.                            ) 
                               ) 1:55 p.m. to 2:00 p.m. 
ANTHONY JAMES BRUEY, and       ) 
AMBER REWIS BRUEY,             ) 
                               ) 
Defendants.                    ) 
_______________________________)  
 
 
 
TRANSCRIPT OF STATUS CONFERENCE 
 
HELD BEFORE THE HONORABLE THOMAS P. BARBER, 
 
United States District Court Judge 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
                            Official Court Reporter: 
                            Jeffrey G. Thomas, RPR, CRR 
                            2110 First Street, Suite 2-194 
                            Fort Myers, FL  33901 
                            Telephone:  (239) 461-2033 
 
 
(Proceedings reported by Stenotype; Transcript produced by 
computer-aided transcription.) 
Case 2:21-cr-00074-TPB-K_D     Document 129     Filed 08/23/22     Page 1 of 5 PageID 746

     2
A P P E A R A N C E S 
 
 
COUNSEL FOR GOVERNMENT: 
 
                  United States Attorney's Office 
                  Middle District of Florida 
                  United States Courthouse 
                  2110 First Street 
                  Room 3-137 
                  Fort Myers, FL  33901 
                  (239)461-2200 
                  BY:  TRENT REICHLING, ESQ. 
 
 
COUNSEL FOR DEFENDANT JAMES BRUEY: 
 
                  Mangone & Miller Law Offices 
                  Suite 502 
                  2335 Stanford Court 
                  Naples,Florida  34112 
                  (239)774-4100 
                  BY:  GEORGE ELLIS SUMMERS, ESQ. 
 
 
COUNSEL FOR DEFENDANT AMBER REWIS BRUEY: 
 
                  Federal Public Defender's Office 
                  2075 West First Street, Suite 300 
                  Fort Myers, FL  33901 
                  (239) 334-0397 
                  BY:  JAMES LAPPAN, ESQ. 
 
 
* * * 
 
 
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Case 2:21-cr-00074-TPB-K_D     Document 129     Filed 08/23/22     Page 2 of 5 PageID 747

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* * * P R O C E E D I N G S * * * 
- - - 
THE COURT:  Now, this next one, I have to look at
this.  Looks like there's co-defendants in this thing.
21-CR-74, U.S. versus Amber Bruey and Anthony Bruey.  Looks
like it's a money laundering, mail fraud, money fraud type
thing.  I didn't look at it in any greater detail.
Who is prosecuting this thing?
MR. REICHLING:  Trent Reichling on behalf of the
United States, Judge.
THE COURT:  Tell me a little bit about -- oh, who is
here for defense?
MR. SUMMERS:  Your Honor, Ellis Summers standing in
for Jim Lappan for Amber Rewis Bruey.
MR. MILLER:  Landon Miller on behalf of Anthony
Bruey, Your Honor.
THE COURT:  Mr. Miller, I saw your motion, you didn't
want to do this, but the status conferences, we'll just do them
on Zoom, like this.  I don't want to put it off, because I need
to talk to people and find out the cases, you know?
MR. MILLER:  Understood.
THE COURT:  What's this all about?
MR. REICHLING:  It's a COVID relief fraud case.
Basically, the defendants are alleged to have filed a number of
false and fraudulent PPP and EIDL loan, Economic Injury
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Case 2:21-cr-00074-TPB-K_D     Document 129     Filed 08/23/22     Page 3 of 5 PageID 748

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Disaster Loan, applications to the SBA and qualified PPP
lenders, and received just under a million dollars in these
loans.  So that's basically the gist of the case.
THE COURT:  Okay.  You know what?  I know there was
another one of those cases that you all had there, and I
haven't seen any of these in Tampa, so maybe you're like the
nationwide leader.  You went -- Mr. Reichling went from the
nationwide leader in illegal reentry cases to now prosecuting
PPP stuff.  
So how much time do you need on this thing?  I'm not
sure what would be involved in something like this.  Mr. Miller
wanted until December.  I think I'm fine with that.
MR. SUMMERS:  Your Honor, my understanding is
Mr. Lappan was going to be asking for a three-month continuance
with a three-month extension of the motion deadline.  And the
reason for that is it is my understanding the discovery is
especially voluminous.
THE COURT:  Well, I'm willing to do the 12/16
at 10:30, and you can just tell Mr. Lappan that that's because
that's the only dates I had on my sheet, and frankly I haven't
figured out what I'm doing, exactly how to do this.  I want to
make a clean start for the first of the year, so I'm just not
sure yet how our dates will work next year.
So he can have a motion deadline for -- you know,
extending the existing motion deadline for 90 days, that's
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Case 2:21-cr-00074-TPB-K_D     Document 129     Filed 08/23/22     Page 4 of 5 PageID 749

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fine; but our next status conference is 12/16 at 10:30.
Everybody okay with that?
MR. MILLER:  Yes, Your Honor.
THE COURT:  Under 18 USC Section 3161(a)(7), I find
the ends of justice are served by the continuance and outweighs
the best interests of the public and the defendant in a speedy
trial based on the issues just discussed.
Thank you.
MR. MILLER:  Thank you, Your Honor.
-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- 
(Thereupon, at 2:00 p.m., the above-entitled matter was 
concluded.) 
-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- 
CERTIFICATE 
I CERTIFY THAT THE FOREGOING TRANSCRIPT IS A TRUE AND 
ACCURATE TRANSCRIPT FROM THE ORIGINAL STENOGRAPHIC RECORD IN 
THE ABOVE-ENTITLED MATTER. 
 
Dated this 15th day of August, 2022. 
 
 
 
 
                                     _                       
                                 JEFFREY G. THOMAS, RPR, CRR 
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Case 2:21-cr-00074-TPB-K_D     Document 129     Filed 08/23/22     Page 5 of 5 PageID 750

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