A federal judge heard arguments Friday involving two key defendants in a racketeering case that accuses members of a Russellville-based white supremacist group of committing violent crimes as part of a large methamphetamine trafficking ring.
An attorney for Wesley Gullett, the president of the New Aryan Empire, argued that his charges should be dropped because the government violated provisions of the Interstate Agreement on Detainers Act when it shuffled him between the state Department of Correction, where he is serving time forstate crimes, and the custody of the U.S. Marshals Service.
Attorney Leslie Borgognoni of Little Rock said a breach of the Interstate Agreement on Detainers Act requires dismissal of charges.
Marcus Millsap's attorneys, Hugh Laws of Russellville and Lee Curry of Monticello, contend that the government violated Millsap's rights by continuing to hold him in federal custody without proper notice and an opportunity for a hearing, instead of returning him to the state Department of Correction as required by the Interstate Agreement on Detainers Act. They say the Interstate Agreement on Detainers Act also invokes speedy trial rules that require Millsap, 51, of Danville to be tried by June 19 or the case against him to be dismissed.
In support of the speedy trial allegations, Millsap's attorneys cited federal prosecutors' decision to wrap pending 2017 charges against Millsap into a 2019 superseding indictment that added racketeering allegations. Because of that, Laws contends that Millsap's case actually began in 2017, and with the application of the Interstate Agreement on Detainers Act, speedy trial rules require that the 2017 charges against Millsap be tried by June 19 or dismissed.
Gullett, 29, of Russellville was first indicted on Oct. 3, 2017, when the case focused on methamphetamine trafficking. Millsap was one of 10 people added when the indictment was superseded on Feb. 5 to add allegations of racketeering by alleged members of the white supremacist group.
Both men were serving time in state prison when indicted in February on the federal racketeering charges. They were transported from state prison to federal court for hearings, and magistrate judges later granted requests to keep them in federal custody until trial, partly because of security concerns cited by the U.S. Marshals office, which transports prisoners. The trial is currently scheduled to begin Oct. 28.
A court document shows that in Millsap's case, a deputy U.S. marshal expressed concern in late March about returning Millsap to the Department of Correction to be held until his federal trial because Millsap tried to flee from the marshals when they first arrested him in 2016. The Department of Correction also provided information that while Millsap was in the department's Tucker Unit, he had an escape plan and the funds to carry it out.
Millsap wants to return to the state prison until his federal trial because his belongings are at the state prison and because the marshals require him to be held in solitary confinement, in leg and arm shackles, for all but one hour every day.
According to federal prosecutors, "The [Interstate Agreement on Detainers Act] is premised on the fact that a detainer lodged against a prisoner often causes issues with the prisoner's status or rehabilitative efforts. For example, he might be placed in a higher security classification or he may no longer be eligible to participate in certain programs. The basic purpose of the [act] is to hasten the disposition of the charges underlying the detainer, which will make the detainer disappear and allow the prisoner to get back to normal prison life."
Prosecutors contend that the Interstate Agreement on Detainers Act doesn't apply to Millsap.
"The provisions of the [act] are triggered when the government lodges a detainer against a state prisoner and then obtains his custody by means of a writ of habeas corpus ad prosequendum," they said, referring to an order for a prisoner to appear for prosecution. "That did not occur in this case, and the provisions of the [act] were not triggered."
Chief U.S. District Judge Brian Miller on Friday denied Gullett's effort to have his charges dismissed, but didn't rule on the issues involving Millsap, saying, "I'm not going to tell you I'm 100 percent certain" on the act.
He granted Assistant U.S. Attorney Stephanie Mazzanti's motion to set Millsap's trial to begin before June 19, to technically meet the requirement of the Interstate Agreement on Detainers Act, if it applies, and said he will also allow the trial to then be postponed until Oct. 28, the date he has already set for the trial for the other 53 co-defendants.
Miller said the only available time on his calendar to hold the trial before June 19 is this Tuesday. Even though Mazzanti said the government was nowhere near being ready for trial by next week, he urged her to hold Millsap's trial separately, beginning Tuesday, if she is seriously concerned that the Interstate Agreement on Detainers Act issue may later cause him to be overturned by the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
Among the charges added in February, when several new defendants were also added to what previously consisted solely of methamphetamine and gun charges, were those of attempted murder, kidnapping and maiming in support of the organization and the drug-trafficking operation.
Authorities have said the investigation, dubbed Operation To The Dirt, began in 2016 when federal agents helped the Pope County sheriff's office in a murder case involving members of the supremacist group, which began as a prison gang in 1990 and has since expanded outside the prison and to neighboring communities and states.
Metro on 05/25/2019