By Matthew Russell Lee, Patreon Podcast
BBC - Guardian UK - Honduras - ESPN
SDNY COURTHOUSE, August 14 – Kevin Dion Rolle, a citizen of the Bahamas, was arrested in Puerto Rico on charges related to a credit card "bust out" scheme under which using different names he ran up charges over $1.2 million.
On February 4, U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York Judge Alison J. Nathan held a detention hearing, and Inner City Press covered it.
Rolle was described as living, prior to arrest and now detention in Essex County Correctional Facility, with his husband Mr. Stefon Hall in Manhattan, and traveling down to Florida to meet with his triplets from his now-deceased wife, brought up from the Bahamas by his mother.
When Rolle was stopped and questioned on June 4, 2020 in the Dallas / Fort Worth International Airport, he had a credit card in the name of his mother, Joan Marie Rolle, who had used Royal Bank of Canada account statements in support of the card.
Some $481,517 in charges were run up on the card.
Rolle's Criminal Justice Act lawyer on February 4 argued for release on $250,000 bond, and noted among other things that the U.S. Bureau of Prisons appeared not to be covered by the recent Due Process Protection Act and amendments to Rule 5(f).
But the government's filing show in Rolle's search history, for example, "Jamaican diplomatic passport" and "fake passport Roosevelt avenue."
Judge Nathan ruled that Rolle is a flight risk and that no set of conditions could reasonably assure his appearance at trial.
Then in later April, this: "ORDER as to Kevin Dion Rolle, Jr. The Court received a letter from Mr. Rolle, which is being transmitted immediately to defense counsel and filed under seal. By 2:00 p.m. tomorrow, April 30, 2021, defense counsel shall indicate if he has any objection to the Court providing a copy of the letter to the Government. Among other matters raised in the letter, Mr. Rolle indicates that he wishes to represent himself."
But now docketed on August 13 is an August 6 email from Rolle to Judge Nathan (docketed by her, to her credit) that "I pleaded guilty on August 5 and the Court scheduled a sentencing for 22nd October. I am writing to respectfully request the Court to advance my sentencing. I am concerned that if the CDC eventually revert its policies back to one including total lockdowns, this could leave me in a state of limbo at MDC in Brooklyn."
Inner City Press will continue cover this case.
It is US v. Rolle, Jr., 20-cr-594 (Nathan).
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