Charged with a federal crime? Don’t start packing bags for beach resort vacation
Federal judges are hesitant to grant defendant requests for vacations outside the U.S. But as two recent cases involving Texans show, it does occasionally happen.
Cabo San Lucas, México. A federal judge in Dallas recently granted a defendant s request to travel to this popular resort with his wife to celebrate his 57th birthday. But that is a rarity in federal court, according to experts.(Agencia Reforma)
When people are charged with federal crimes, they tend to lay low and save money for legal fees and other expenses, attorneys say.
Alleged neo-Nazi in Grand Prairie ‘urgently’ sought rifle after Capitol insurrection, feds say
Christian Mackey wanted to buy an untraceable rifle and a fully automatic machine gun to stop “hoards” of minorities, a prosecutor argued in convincing a federal judge to detain him until trial.
Alleged neo-Nazi Christian Mackey, of Grand Prairie, talked of killing Jews and Blacks online and sought assault rifles urgently, the FBI told a judge.(Andy Jacobsohn / Staff Photographer)
As a teen, Christian Mackey took an interest in Communism and would troll neo-Nazi message boards for fun, the FBI says.
Before long, he got hooked on National Socialism and other hateful Nazi ideology and switched allegiances, authorities say. Mackey, 20, of Grand Prairie, joined a Hitler Youth-like group online called Iron Youth and became a self-described “radical Jew slayer” who sought to buy assault rifles to kill those he hated, the FBI says.
North Texas financial analyst defrauded business of $1.4 million, FBI says
Fort Worth Star-Telegram 2/9/2021 Kaley Johnson, Fort Worth Star-Telegram
Feb. 9 A former financial analyst was charged with defrauding the North Texas Business Alliance (NTBA) out of more than $1.4 million in rebate funds, Acting U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Texas Prerak Shah announced Monday.
A federal grand jury charged Tammy Walden Thomas, 60, with nine counts of wire fraud last week, the press release said. From March 2016 to October 2019, Thomas was a financial analyst for NTBA, a cooperative association of hundreds of North Texas convenience stores and gasoline station owners that negotiated discounts with multinational food and beverage companies on behalf of its members.