Holiday cheer.

 Two wonderful orders to discuss.

1. Almost one year to the day last year, Sam Rabin and Andrea Lopez were in trial on a reverse money laundering scheme where they advanced the affirmative defense of entrapment on behalf of their client.  After a one-week trial, the jury acquitted their client of a conspiracy charge but convicted their client on four of the five substantive money laundering charges.  They requested that the Judge leave their client on bond through Christmas, but the AUSA requested he be remanded.  He was remanded the night before Christmas.  Months later, upon the discovery of the Government’s suppression of favorable Jencks material, Sam and Andrea filed a motion for new trial, which was referred by Judge Moore to a Magistrate Judge. On October 11, 2024, the Magistrate denied the motion for new trial.  The motion alleged, in part, that the undisclosed Jencks contradicted the trial testimony of the undercover agent.  Judge Moore reversed the Magistrate’s report and recommendation and GRANTED their client’s motion for new trial.  He should be home in time for Christmas this year.  The case is USA v. Othoniel Gomez, Case No. 23-20153.  Here is the order.

2. Judge Rudy Ruiz certified to the 11th Circuit his intention to grant a new trial for psychiatrist Mark Agresti, whose case is on appeal from his conviction on Medicare fraud charges arising from drug testing of sober home residents (to prevent and detect relapse). Richard Klugh and former AFPD Jenny Wilson, along with Greg Rosenfeld, successfully argued and established at an evidentiary hearing that the government’s chief witness invented, and perjured himself regarding, core factual support for the government’s theory that the doctor was involved in the fraud. Judge Ruiz will issue a formal order shortly.