Texas Financier Stanford Reportedly Injured in Jail Fight
Texas financier R. Allen Stanford, who faces federal criminal charges related to an alleged conspiracy to defraud investors, "has been returned to a lockup after being hospitalized for treatment of a concussion following a jail fight," according to www.nbcdfw.com, an NBC Dallas affiliate's Web site.
Stanford's court-appointed attorney Kent Schaffer, a partner in Houston's Bires & Schaffer, told The Associated Press on Monday that his client was injured in a fight on Thursday with another inmate at the Joe Corley Detention Facility in Conroe, Texas, near Houston. Schaffer did not immediately respond to a call seeking comment.
Schaffer says his client has two black eyes and a broken nose. Schaffer says Stanford was returned to the lockup Sunday afternoon. He says he met with Stanford Monday and his client seems OK. "These kinds of problems happen in jail all the time," Schaffer says. Angela Dodd, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Texas, refers calls to the Marshals Service spokesman.
Alfredo Perez, a deputy U.S. marshal and spokesman for the U.S. Marshals Service, confirms that on Sept. 24 around 10 a.m. Stanford was involved in "an altercation" that may have been a more physical fight. The circumstances are still being investigated, Perez says.
Stanford was sent to a hospital but he did not sustain any "life-threatening injuries," Perez says, noting that the hospital kept Stanford longer than required to make sure, given his history of medical problems, that he went back to prison with "a clean bill of health."
On Friday, a day after the fight, U.S. District Judge David Hittner of the Southern District of Texas ordered that Stanford be transferred by the U.S. Marshals Service to the Federal Detention Center in downtown Houston no later than Thursday. Before the fight, on Sept. 21, Stanford had filed a sealed, ex parte motion seeking to be moved from the Corley Detention Facility to the downtown Houston facility pending his trial.
In his order granting the move, Hittner wrote,
The Court recognizes the extraordinary nature and complexity of this case, the extent and gravity of the charges levied against Stanford, the hundreds of thousands of records involved and the enormous amount of time no doubt necessary to review those documents and adequately prepare a defense. Consequently, the Court determines that because of the unique circumstances present in this case it is appropriate to order Stanford housed at the Federal Detention Center in Houston pending trial to ensure an adequate opportunity for Stanford to review the copious documents, consult his attorneys and prepare his defense.
Schaffer says the judge talked to the prosecutors and they did not object to Stanford's motion.
Stanford, 59, has been in the Corley facility since he was indicted in June on 21 counts, including wire and mail fraud. He has been jailed without bond; Hittner considers him a flight risk.
Stanford and other executives of the now defunct Houston-based Stanford Financial Group are accused of orchestrating a massive Ponzi scheme by advising clients to invest more than $7 billion in certificates of deposit from the Stanford International Bank on the Caribbean island of Antigua.
Investors were promised their investments were safe and were scrutinized by Antigua's bank regulator and an independent auditor.
But authorities say Stanford and the indicted executives fabricated the bank's balance sheets, bribed Antiguan regulators and misused investors' money to pay for his lavish lifestyle.
Stanford and three former company executives have pleaded not guilty.
Another former executive, James M. Davis, has pleaded guilty in the case and is cooperating with prosecutors.
Stanford's next court hearing is Oct. 14.
On Sept. 17, Hittner signed an order adding Schaffer to Stanford's defense team. In the order, Hittner found because this is an "extremely difficult case," it was necessary to appoint another attorney in the interest of justice. Two days earlier, after determining Stanford does not have immediate access to money to pay for lawyers, Hittner granted a motion to allow Dick DeGuerin, a partner in DeGuerin & Dickson of Houston, to withdraw as Stanford's attorney and appointed the federal public defender's office to defend Stanford.
This article first appeared on Tex Parte Blog, a blog of Texas Lawyer.
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