Court filing
Information - United States v. Maurice Fayne related docket
Record facts
| Court | U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia |
|---|---|
| Filed | 2021-10-28 |
U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia · No. 1:20-cr-00228-MHC-JKL · Doc. 258 · 2021-10-28 · Docket on CourtListener
Summary
A transcript of the August 14, 2020 status conference in United States of America v. Maurice Fayne, No. 1:20-cr-00228-MHC-JKL, before Magistrate Judge John K. Larkins, III of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia, filed October 28, 2021 as Document 258. Fayne confirms he will continue pro se, and after advising him of the risks, the court finds he has knowingly and voluntarily waived his right to counsel and appoints Mark Jeffrey as stand-by counsel. John Russell Phillips for the government states the maximum penalties, including 30 years for wire fraud affecting financial institutions and 20 years for money laundering. The court denies without prejudice Fayne's discovery motion. Phillips explains that images of seized phones and an iMac computer will be copied onto a new, sealed hard drive supplied by the defense.
Summary drafted by a model from the document's text below and checked by script against that text before publication. It is a navigation aid, not a reading of what the document proves. Where AI is used
Full text
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IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
FOR THE NORTHERN DISTRICT OF GEORGIA
ATLANTA DIVISION
United States of America,
vs. Docket No.
1:20-cr-00228-MHC-JKL
Maurice Fayne,
Defendant.
TRANSCRIPT OF STATUS CONFERENCE
BEFORE THE HONORABLE JOHN K. LARKINS, III
UNITED STATES MAGISTRATE COURT JUDGE
FRIDAY, AUGUST 14, 2020
Appearance of Counsel:
For the Plaintiff: John Russell Phillips, Esq.
Michael John Brown, Esq.
Assistant United States Attorneys
For the Defendant: Pro Se
Mark Jeffrey, Esq., stand-by counsel
Judith M. Wolff, CRR
Official Court Reporter
1914 United States Courthouse
75 Ted Turner Drive, S.W.
Atlanta, Georgia 30303
judith_wolff@gand.uscourts.gov
TRANSCRIBED FROM DIGITALLY-RECORDED AUDIO
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(Court was called to order at 9:01 a.m.)
THE COURT: Good morning, everybody. Please be
seated.
Good to see people in the courthouse.
We are here today on Case No. 1:20-cr-228, United
States of America vs. Maurice Fayne.
Representing the government today is Russell
Phillips, and Mike Brown is also in the courtroom.
Also in the courtroom is Mr. Fayne, I presume. This
is the first time we have met, sir. And seated next to him is
Mark Jeffrey.
This is a status conference, really, in this case.
Originally, this was set for a pretrial conference today but
Mr. Fayne was arraigned on the superseding indictment on
Wednesday.
Nonetheless, because of his decision to represent
himself, I wanted to have a hearing or conference early on to
be able to flesh out any issues that we need to discuss
relating to that.
And I would also like to talk about discovery.
Mr. Fayne, we had a -- found on the floor of my
chambers what looked to be some sort of motion that you had
filed or attempted to file. So I want to address that as
well. It relates to a demand for discovery.
So the first thing I do want to talk about, though,
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is, Mr. Fayne, your decision to represent yourself. I have
Mr. Jeffrey here, I have asked him to come down here.
But before we get started, do you want to continue to
represent yourself, or would you like me to find a lawyer to
represent you?
THE DEFENDANT: I will continue pro se.
THE COURT: Okay. That is certainly your right. And
just so that we are all clear on this, especially since you
have been arraigned again on a superseding indictment, I need
to ask you some questions.
I think Judge Walker went through a lot of these with
you so they will sound pretty familiar, but just so we have
all of our bases covered, I'm going to go over these with you.
Let me first, are you suffering from any mental or
physical condition that would affect your ability to
understand what's going on today or to make important
decisions?
THE DEFENDANT: No.
THE COURT: All right. You understand that you have
been charged now by a superseding indictment, correct?
THE DEFENDANT: Yes.
THE COURT: All right. And the maximum penalties for
each of those charges -- Mr. Phillips, are you in a position
to be able to advise us as to those?
MR. PHILLIPS: I am, your Honor.
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THE COURT: Would you please --
MR. PHILLIPS: Would you like me to stand up?
THE COURT: You can stay seated right there.
MR. PHILLIPS: Your Honor, the defendant is charged
with wire fraud, among other things, and because that affects
financial institutions, the maximum penalty for that would be
30 years in prison.
He is also charged with bank fraud and making a false
statement to a federally-insured financial institution, and
the penalty for each of those counts is also 30 years.
And he is charged with money laundering under 1956
and 1957, and the maximum penalty under each of those statutes
is 20 years.
THE COURT: All right. Thank you, Mr. Phillips.
And Mr. Fayne, do you understand what the prosecutor
just said?
THE DEFENDANT: Yes.
THE COURT: All right. I also need to ask you, do
you understand or are you familiar with the Federal Rules of
Evidence?
THE DEFENDANT: (Indiscernible audio.)
THE COURT: Okay. And you understand that those
rules are pretty technical and that they will apply to you
whether you are represented by a lawyer or not, right?
THE DEFENDANT: Yes, sir.
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THE COURT: All right. Same question with respect to
the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure; are you familiar with
those rules?
THE DEFENDANT: Yes.
THE COURT: And you understand that if you proceed to
represent yourself, you are going to be subject to those rules
as if you were represented by a lawyer, right?
THE DEFENDANT: Yes.
THE COURT: I also want to advise you that if you do
represent yourself, the Court is in no position to be able to
advise you about how to try your case or any defenses that you
might have. That's something that a lawyer would be in a
position to do.
Do you understand that?
THE DEFENDANT: Yes.
THE COURT: All right. And do you understand that if
you are found guilty of any of these charges or even all of
the charges, that the Court could sentence you possibly up to
the maximum amount, and that those sentences could run
concurrently or consecutively?
THE DEFENDANT: Yes.
THE COURT: All right. Let me also just advise you,
because I need to tell you that, in my opinion, in the Court's
opinion, you're making a grievous error by representing
yourself in this case. These are very serious charges.
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A lawyer would be in a really good position to be
able to help you navigate these very complex laws. This is a
financial fraud case and those cases can be very difficult as
well. So having a lawyer by your side would be a very good
thing. And I think you are making an error by representing
yourself.
Nevertheless, it is your right to represent yourself
in a criminal case. So do you understand that I have tried to
inform you of the major problems you might have if you decide
to represent yourself?
THE DEFENDANT: Yes, sir.
THE COURT: All right. And has anybody threatened
you or caused you to give up your right to a lawyer in this
case?
THE DEFENDANT: No.
THE COURT: All right. And you are making that
decision voluntarily and freely?
THE DEFENDANT: Yes.
THE COURT: Okay. All right. Well, I will find that
you have knowingly and voluntarily waived your right to
counsel in this case, and I will permit you to represent
yourself going forward.
I am, though, going to appoint Mr. Jeffrey as what's
called stand-by counsel. Mr. Jeffrey will be there, should
you change your mind, he will be willing to step in.
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I think, too, that having stand-by counsel will be
helpful for you and for the Court and for the government
because this case will have a lot of discovery, most likely.
A lot of financial cases do.
So having at least a trained lawyer who can be in a
position to help receive that information and coordinate with
you I think will be good at well. Okay?
THE DEFENDANT: Yes, sir.
THE COURT: If at any time you change your mind and
you would like Mr. Jeffrey to step in, let him know, and he'll
let the Court know and then we will get you fully -- we will
get him appointed to represent you as counsel. Okay?
THE DEFENDANT: Yes, sir.
THE COURT: All right. Now that that's taken care
of, I did want to talk about discovery.
And Mr. Fayne, am I right that you filed or slid a
motion of some sort under my door?
THE DEFENDANT: Yes, sir. (Indiscernible audio) to
the arraignment here on Wednesday, Mr. Brown, had
(indiscernible audio.)
THE COURT: Okay. Okay. So do you -- so that
motion, is that -- so is that now moot? In other words, has
that been taken care of, in your view?
THE DEFENDANT: I can't say because (indiscernible
audio) specific discovery. I'm not -- I haven't had time to
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(indiscernible audio).
THE COURT: Um-h'm.
THE DEFENDANT: I spoke to some counsel prior to
(indiscernible audio) yesterday because I didn't have a
(indiscernible audio.)
At this time I would like to ask the Court to give me
a continuance to review motions that have already been raised
filed (indiscernible audio).
THE COURT: Yeah. Okay. So what I'm going to do is
I'm actually going to deny, without prejudice, meaning that
you can raise issues again relating to discovery.
I looked at your motion briefly before coming on the
bench, and a lot of the things that you have asked for in that
motion are things that I have already ordered the government
to produce.
So it probably either has already been provided in
hard copy or in an electronic format.
And the request for what is called Brady or Giglio
materials, the government is constitutionality required to
provide at different points in time. That's also covered by
my standard scheduling order.
So if there is anything in particular that you think
is not there and that should be, or that Mr. Jeffrey is able
to advise you about, then you can raise that as appropriate.
But I would also just point you to my scheduling
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order in this case that requires that the parties talk to each
other about an issue. So if there's something you think is
missing or that you expect to be in the material and it's not
there, you need to talk to the prosecutor first, rather than
coming to the Court. Because that's a whole lot more
efficient in trying to figure something out like that. Okay?
THE DEFENDANT: Yes, sir. And I tried (indiscernible
audio).
THE COURT: All right. Well, now I think we're
clear. And it sounds like you now have received two discs; is
that correct?
THE DEFENDANT: Yes.
THE COURT: All right. Mr. Phillips, what is the
status of discovery? Let me ask you the questions now.
MR. PHILLIPS: Your Honor, we sent the discovery to
the defendant's home in Dacula, by Federal Express, and the
defendant refused to accept it and he sent it back to the
United States Attorney's office. And it was marked refused
and returned to sender.
And so when Mr. Brown came to the arraignment earlier
this week, he took that same discovery that we had previously
sent by FedEx, and he handed it to Mr. Fayne in open court on
the record with Judge Vineyard.
So that was the original discovery that we provided.
We have additional discovery, your Honor, that we are
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willing to provide, but it would require a very large hard
drive for us to copy it.
So traditionally what we do in this situation when we
seize phones and computers is the defense provides the
government with a hard drive. It has to be brand new,
unopened, in the original manufacturer's sealed container.
And then we will get the FBI to copy the images of those
devices onto the hard drive for the defense, if they want.
They don't have to have them, but they are available.
But, for example, when Mr. Fayne, when his house was
searched pursuant to a search warrant, the FBI seized two
phones from him and also an iMac computer. All of those were
imaged and we have those images and we're willing to provide
them.
THE COURT: Okay. All right.
MR. PHILLIPS: I told the -- I'm sorry, your Honor.
THE COURT: Go ahead, Mr. Phillips.
MR. PHILLIPS: Kamal Ghali represents codefendant Dan
Jay. I explained the same thing to Mr. Ghali. He told me
he's providing a hard drive, and we're going to do that for
him as well.
THE COURT: Okay. Mr. Fayne, do you have a hard
drive that is sealed and ready to provide to the government to
receive that, assuming you want the information?
THE DEFENDANT: Well, I was just made aware of that
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so (indiscernible audio).
THE COURT: So you will get one. Okay. All right.
MR. PHILLIPS: I'm not an expert, obviously, on these
things, but I think it's going to take at least a terabyte.
It might be safer to get one that's a little bit bigger. I
think they are fairly inexpensive these days.
THE COURT: Yes. I saw an 8 terabyte at Costco for,
like, $100. It's incredible.
So Mr. Fayne, I think it's probably best to get a 2
terabyte hard drive. And if you have difficulty with that,
you can always talk to Mr. Jeffrey. Mr. Jeffrey has done
this numerous times with his other clients.
But, yes, you need to get a brand new one, and then
you are going to provide it to the government.
How long does it usually take for the government to
dump the electronic information onto a hard drive?
MR. PHILLIPS: Your Honor, I'm not sure about that,
but I will ask them to expedite it and do it as quickly as
they can.
I know the FBI has lots of matters like that, but I'm
sure they will do everything they can to do it as quickly as
possible. They understand it's important that the defendant
has that information available.
One other issue I would like to address about
discovery, your Honor, is that the defendant filed a change of
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address form.
THE COURT: Yes. I was going to get to that in just
a moment. Yes.
MR. PHILLIPS: Would you like me to wait on that,
your Honor?
THE COURT: If you want to talk about it, I mean, I
do intend to talk about that.
MR. PHILLIPS: Well, I don't have --
THE COURT: Yes. Well --
MR. PHILLIPS: Whenever you're ready.
THE COURT: Let me just -- regarding the hard drive,
Mr. Fayne, do you think you can get a hard drive to the
government in a week?
THE DEFENDANT: Yes.
THE COURT: And let's get the ball rolling on that
because nobody knows how long it's going to be for the FBI to
do the things they need to do, but that's information that
you're entitled to receive and, really, you ought to have in
order to be able to assess your case.
Now in terms of your change of address, I noticed
that you did file that, changing your address for mailing of
court notices and things of that nature to, as best I can
tell, some sort of mailbox, you know, commercial mailbox-type
of place in Oklahoma City.
So, what's going on with that?
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THE DEFENDANT: Well, the first thing is I had
changed (indiscernible audio) mailing address. (Indiscernible
audio) the trust property, out of Oklahoma (indiscernible
audio.)
The thing with them is (indiscernible audio) from all
the attention that was put out on this case (indiscernible
audio) and paparazzi (indiscernible audio). Stuff like that.
So all mail, not just court mail, all mail
(indiscernible audio) goes to a third-party so they can scan
every document and reference (indiscernible audio) and scan it
through these (indiscernible audio) and I get to see exactly
what it is.
(Indiscernible audio) the property that's in Dacula
(indiscernible audio) the post master informed me to
(indiscernible audio).
THE COURT: So if I'm understanding you correctly, if
the Court were to send you mail to the address in Dacula, it
would not get delivered to Dacula as it is, it would be
forwarded automatically to this place in Oklahoma City?
THE DEFENDANT: That's correct.
THE COURT: All right. Well, Mr. Phillips can chime
in here.
There are two things here. I mean, I understand your
concern about receiving a bunch of mail and potentially
disturbing things.
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But if you're representing yourself, you've got to
make sure that you're getting court notices in a timely
fashion, and things getting forwarded are even sent
cross-country, especially these days, can take a little bit
longer. So that's a concern.
And do you -- let me ask you, because I don't know,
how long does it usually take after something has been
delivered at this address in Oklahoma City for it to get
scanned and then sent to you? Is it usually same day?
THE DEFENDANT: (Indiscernible audio.)
THE COURT: Okay.
THE DEFENDANT: And then also, any mail, like I said,
most of the time it goes to the post office. It don't even
come to the mailbox. It goes -- the post master has it on
file (indiscernible audio). I haven't had an issue about
anything.
(Indiscernible audio) I sent them to him
(indiscernible audio).
THE COURT: Um-h'm.
THE DEFENDANT: (Indiscernible audio.)
THE COURT: Gotcha. Okay.
Mr. Phillips, is there anything you want to --
MR. PHILLIPS: Well, your Honor --
THE COURT: -- address.
MR. PHILLIPS: If the defendant wants to forward his
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private mail to Oklahoma City, the government has no concerns
with that.
But in terms of us being able to communicate
effectively and efficiently with him in this case, we would
request that the Court would require the defendant to have an
address that's in this district that we can send things to.
And if the Court would like us to send it directly to
Mr. Jeffrey and have him provide it to the defendant, we are
willing to do that. Whatever is appropriate.
But as the Court noted, I believe there is going to
be some delay in sending things to Oklahoma, and then having
somebody there examine it, copy it, scan it, whatever it may
be, and then somehow get it back to the defendant. It just
makes sense that there is some delay.
And so I worry that at some point down the road,
especially as we get closer to trial, that that could become
an issue and wind up being a basis for a request for
postponement. And I'm trying to avoid that up front, if
possible.
I don't think it's going to be necessary for us to
communicate frequently with the defendant until we get closer
to trial and maybe on trial matters.
But certainly after we provide the discovery and the
supplemental discovery, I don't think there is going to be a
lot of back and forth. There usually isn't in these kinds of
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cases.
But I do need to be able to provide the hard drive,
for example, to the defendant. I would normally do that by
Federal Express, but if the defendant is not going to accept
the Federal Express package, then that's futile for me to do
that.
I can't send that to the P.O. box in Oklahoma and
have them scan that. It's a massive amount of material and it
would take special software to be able to view that.
THE COURT: Okay.
MR. JEFFREY: I didn't want to interject in the
record but overall I'm happy to serve as the -- standing up;
is it okay, your Honor?
THE COURT: If you would remain seated there.
MR. JEFFREY: I'm happy to do it. I'm honored. I
appreciate the Court's confidence, as always.
I do want to let the Court know, I spoke with
Mr. Fayne. We had a very cordial meeting. He was very
courteous. I would work with him.
I had indicated (indiscernible audio) that I believe
that having a lawyer (indiscernible audio) a couple hours last
night would be beneficial. But having said that, my position,
your Honor, has always been who am I to judge? If someone
feels that this is what they need to do or want to do, I'm not
one to judge them, but I want him to be aware -- Mr. Fayne to
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be aware that if he is the counsel, that he is the one who
calls the shots and he is the one who is responsible for what
happens. And it has to be that way.
And I told him I would be -- if he comes to me -- and
I think he may consider this and say hey, look, I would like
you to take over. And I told him that, you know, as a
straight shooter, as I am, that I would have to call it as I
see it and assume the full responsibility to the defense.
Of course with his right as he has under our system,
you make the fundamental decisions as to going to trial,
putting on witnesses, et cetera.
And I also told him that in my opinion that what I
have seen in terms of some of the points, if you will, of his
motions and so forth, it would be my (indiscernible audio)
it's not something (indiscernible audio) because I can't
(indiscernible audio).
Having said that, I just want -- I wanted to go ahead
and put on the record I understand that at least at this point
he's firm, because I spoke with him. Of course our first
meeting was in congenial terms, if you will, and I don't see
any reason it would be otherwise.
But my recommendation, Mr. Fayne does have that
right, as the Court is aware. I do need -- if I can, your
Honor, very briefly say that with that right to be his
counsel, that's fine, but he must assume the responsibility
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for what happens.
And then if I may be in position (indiscernible
audio) look, final motions, obviously (indiscernible audio)
the Court might have an issue with that. So the earlier the
better.
I'm happy to proceed and honored, as I indicated, and
grateful to the Court. He does seem to be a congenial man,
he's principled. (Indiscernible audio.)
But as far as discovery goes, like what Mr. Phillips
said, all I can do is take a look at it. If I think it
appropriate (indiscernible audio) he is the one directing it
and give him my thoughts, but with the understanding that he
would be responsible for the filing. It can't be
(indiscernible audio).
In other words, if I simply advise him (indiscernible
audio). For that reason, I would be uncomfortable, if I'm the
designee, if you will, to be receiving discovery for various
points. Then the onus is on me, if you will, for trying to
make sure it gets to him. (Indiscernible audio.)
Which I don't have a problem. I intend to do that.
But again, to the extent he feels comfortable (indiscernible
audio). So I hope that kind of explains my position.
THE COURT: Yes.
MR. JEFFREY: And Mr. Fayne's position as well.
Also, I'm glad to be here and I will assist him, not judge
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him, but according to that protocol, if you will.
THE COURT: All right. And Mr. Fayne, you wanted to
add something?
THE DEFENDANT: Yes, sir. (Indiscernible audio) but
also, I do have an MRA that's (indiscernible audio).
And I would go on record right now (indiscernible
audio) they call me Hey, you have a package here, pick it up,
but, you know, same as was in Oklahoma, but if the Court is
worried about timing or delays (indiscernible audio).
THE COURT: Here is what I'm going to do.
Mr. Jeffrey is right. I mean, his role as stand-by
counsel is not really as your lawyer in the traditional sense.
He is not required to review the discovery, he's not required
to advise you concerning potential motions, he's not required
to coordinate the receipt of discovery or to notify the
government if there's anything missing, that kind of stuff.
That's all going to fall on you.
And along with that comes the responsibility to make
sure that you are getting court notices and letters from the
government, and packages, especially discovery packages.
As it goes to your receipt of U.S. mail and
forwarding, given that you have managed to forward your
address to someplace in Oklahoma City anyway, I'm not going to
require that you reset that address to an address in this
district at this time.
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But I'm going to be absolutely clear with you. You
are bearing that risk, so if something gets lost in the mail
or something gets lost in transit and you miss a court
appearance and the marshals have to go out there and arrest
you, that's going to be your fault. Not anybody else's.
Okay? Do you understand that?
THE DEFENDANT: Yes, sir.
THE COURT: As to receiving FedEx packages and stuff
like that there, I do believe that it's appropriate that those
materials go straight to the residence that you have listed
with Pretrial Services and not any other place. Because those
things can be bulky, they can be sensitive, especially things
like hard drives. That needs to go to the place where you're
residing.
So Mr. Phillips, to the extent you need to FedEx
something, that needs to go to his residence. But court
notices on the docket, they are going to get mailed so this
Oklahoma City address. And again, you bear the risk if
something gets screwed up.
And Mr. Jeffrey will get notice of it, too. But it's
not his job to ping you every single time you get something.
Because he's not -- he's not your lawyer, he's stand-by
counsel.
And again, I strongly urge you to reconsider, because
Mr. Jeffrey knows this. He has handled these types of cases.
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The Court is familiar with him and his work. I think you
would be in very good hands with a trusted adviser like that.
But again, that's a decision that you just need to
mull over in your head.
Let's see. We also have several motions that you
filed, Mr. Fayne. One is a motion to suppress, which I think
we'll be reconvening on a pretrial conference at some point,
so I'm going to defer addressing that -- unless you all want
to talk about it now, I think we can defer addressing that to
a later time.
Especially after Mr. Fayne has had an opportunity to
receive the additional discovery.
And then you've also filed a couple of motions to
dismiss that, best I can tell, is this sovereign citizen
stuff.
All these names in trust and all that stuff is not
going to get you very far in this case. I've seen defendants
in your position to try to move forward with those kind of
theories, it doesn't really work out very well. I just want
to warn you about that. Okay.
It's not a novel legal theory and it's not something
that's going to fly with this Court or the Court of Appeals or
anywhere else. So I just want to warn you about that.
THE DEFENDANT: What is a sovereign citizen?
THE COURT: If I need to tell you what it is, then I
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think you need to look it up. Because it looks an awful lot
like what you put in all this stuff being a moorish citizen
and all -- not being a United States citizen, fictitious names
and all that stuff, it's just not going to work.
So I just want to warn you because that really
distracts, because you may have some good defenses in this
case, you really might. You might have some good issues to
raise regarding suppression of evidence.
That's where you need to be focusing your attention
and that's where a lawyer can help you.
Trying to get on cute technicalities about invoking,
you know, fictitious legal theories isn't going to get you
very far.
So again, I'm not saying that to be critical of you,
but you have got a lot on the line. This is your life at
stake. And if I were you, I would put my trust in a lawyer.
I think that covers it for now. We will, when we
reconvene, we will talk about pending motions. We will set a
rescheduled hearing for the pretrial conference. And to the
extent there are additional motions you want to file,
Mr. Fayne, you can do that.
And if there was something you wanted to say,
Mr. Fayne? I see you raising your hand.
THE DEFENDANT: Yes, sir. There was one other motion
about bond conditions. I know you didn't set that, but I have
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an emergency situation.
I spoke to my Pretrial Services about it yesterday.
My grandmother has a blood clot in her leg. Right
now she is (indiscernible audio) stage 3. She is going to
stage 4. They may amputate her leg. She went to the hospital
yesterday. She is in Arkansas.
Part of my motion for bond conditions is to travel to
Arkansas.
I talked to Pretrial Services. He said because of
the bond conditions, they contact Pretrial Services about any
travel outside of the district or anything. And he told me to
just bring it, make the Court aware.
He said I might not have to file a motion -- which I
had already filed a motion for bond conditions, but he said
since it's an emergency situation, make sure you bring it up
into the open court.
Because my grandmother, she raised me since I was one
month old. And this whole situation with her heart condition
and stuff, it could be fatal (indiscernible audio) and I would
like the chance to at least go see her, speak with her. You
know, be by her side throughout this process.
Pretrial Services, I told him if there is anything I
need, where I would be staying or anything, I would give it to
him. Him and I have a very open dialogue. My curfew ends at
8:00 a.m. every morning.
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As far as (indiscernible audio) I called him
yesterday and the day before, you know, I need to leave before
8:00 a.m. tomorrow to make court by 9:00. Traffic could be
anything.
I mean, we have a very open communication and
dialogue about everything. So I tried to (indiscernible
audio).
THE COURT: Well, I'm very sorry to hear about your
grandmother.
So, the PSO is right. The decision as to whether to
modify conditions of release go to the judge who sets your
bond. That was Judge Anand, if I recall correctly.
THE DEFENDANT: Yes, sir.
THE COURT: And so when I get off the bench, I will
send -- I'll make sure that he's aware of your motion. I
don't know if the government has had an opportunity to look at
it or to voice an objection, if there is one.
Again, that's not the decision that I am going to
make. That would be up to Judge Anand.
But let me just -- I would be remiss if I didn't
point out, if you had a lawyer, this is the kind of thing that
they are very adept at being able to help you with. Okay?
Taking it off your shoulders and knowing who to
contact and making sure that things get where they need to go.
Okay?
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So like I said, I'll make sure Judge Anand is aware
of the motion, but that's in his court. Okay. And again, I
am sorry to hear about your grandmother.
All right. Is there anything further?
MR. PHILLIPS: Your Honor, one final thing about the
hard drive. If the defendant intends to provide one, he would
just have that delivered to the United States attorney's
office. There is a receptionist on the sixth floor and she
can take custody of it and she will notify me that it's been
delivered and I will make arrangements to get it to the FBI as
soon as possible.
THE COURT: All right. So that involves Mr. Fayne
coming down here with it, or like ordering it online and
having it delivered?
MR. PHILLIPS: That's fine. He can have it delivered
directly from Amazon, or something like that. Or he can
purchase it locally and then have it FedExed to us, if he
wants to do that.
Or he could have a courier bring it or he could bring
it himself and drop it off at the U.S. attorney's office. The
sixth floor of this building.
THE COURT: If you get it delivered through Amazon,
how do you know that it came from him?
MR. PHILLIPS: Well, I have never done that before.
I suppose he would have to put my name on it or he could have
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Case 1:20-cr-00228-MHC-JKL Document 258 Filed 10/28/21 Page 25 of 27
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it delivered to my attention at that address, at the U.S.
attorney's office. And then that's the only one that I would
be receiving so I would know where it came from.
THE COURT: Mr. Fayne, it sounds to me like the
easiest thing to do would be to go and buy one of these things
and bring it to the sixth floor at the U.S. Attorney's Office
so they know that it's from you and that it's in the right
hands.
If you want to try to orchestrate some sort of
delivery, making sure that it goes to Mr. Phillips's attention
as he has instructed, that's up to you. This is your
responsibility to make sure this gets done.
THE DEFENDANT: Yes, sir.
THE COURT: Anything further, from the government?
MR. PHILLIPS: No, your Honor.
THE COURT: Okay. All right. Mr. Fayne, anything
further from you?
THE DEFENDANT: No, sir.
THE COURT: Mr. Jeffrey?
MR. JEFFREY: No, your Honor. Thank you very much.
THE COURT: All right. We will be in recess.
Have a good weekend.
(Proceedings were adjourned at 9:35 a.m.)
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TRANSCRIBER'S CERTIFICATION
I, Judith M. Wolff, a Certified Realtime Reporter,
with offices in Atlanta, Georgia, do hereby certify:
That I transcribed the proceedings digitally recorded
on August 14, 2020, in the matter of USA vs. Maurice Fayne,
aka Arkansas Mo, Case No. 1:20-cr-00228-MHC;
That said audio recording of the proceedings were
reduced to typewritten form by me;
That "indiscernible audio" designations are the
result of technological limitations beyond my control;
And that the foregoing transcript is a true and
accurate record of the proceedings.
Date: October 27, 2021
s/ JUDITH M. WOLFF, CERTIFIED REALTIME REPORTER
Signature of Transcriber
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