United States Magistrate Judge Robert E. Weir issued a findings statement for the continued detention of Senior Judge Cletus Maricle by federal authorities.
Maricle and seven other Clay County public officials were indicted with vote buying, voter fraud, Racketeering, and obstruction of justice by a Federal Grand Jury on March 3, 2009. Maricle was arrested on March 19, 2009 and the indictments were then unsealed.
Magistrate Judge Weir found that Federal Prosecutors established beyond a preponderance of evidence that the criminal case against Maricle involved a serious risk that Maricle would flee or attempt to engage in further acts to obstruct justice.
Testimony by FBI SA Briggs at Maricle’s Detention Hearing
*SA Briggs testified that over 100 witnesses are involved in the investigation with over 30 audio recordings confirmed to contain content showing guilt of Maricle. Briggs went on to point out anomalies in the Clay County absentee vote totals during the time period the indictments have stated which are corroborated with admissions and plea statements before the Federal District Court by at least one already convicted defendant.
*Maricle is alleged also to have directed a corroborating witness on how to testify before the federal grand jury by encouraging the witness to mislead or withhold information which is documented on recordings of the witness and Maricle. Further, Co-Defendant Stivers was gave line by line directions to a witness as allegedly instructed by Maricle which was also recorded on audio.
*Using his professional association as Clay Circuit Court Judge, Maricle is alleged to have attempted to learn the home addresses and personal vehicles of FBI agents and task force officers involved in the Clay County investigations.
*Maricle is alleged to have left the state on occasion to avoid investigators. [An example of this not in the Federal Court findings is when Maricle stated he was unavailable for long periods of time in cases in Russell County as Senior Judge due to the fact his wife wanted to visit and stay in Florida.]
*Search Warrants of Maricle’s home produced a local precinct list of many individuals known by FBI agents to be involved in election and voter fraud.
*Acts of lawlessness by Maricle as a circuit judge include two alleged events. The first being jury tampering which allegedly occurred around 1990. Maricle with others including the civil Plaintiff were alleged to have contacted the spouse of a juror. The alleged result was for the jury to return a verdict for the Plaintiff in a specific amount of money which such an outcome occurred. In a 2005 criminal case before Maricle as Judge; a defendant intended to implicate Maricle’s daughter in the wrongdoing. Maricle purportedly gave an ex parte promise to the co-defendant for leniency in sentencing for following a script to convict the defendant who had mentioned Maricle’s daughter. Maricle in retaliation allegedly gave the co-defendant the highest sentence possible for failing to follow Maricle’s instructions.
*January 1, 1972: A day when state courts are closed, a 1971 state murder charge against Maricle was dismissed. Maricle is alleged to have disappeared between the murder charge and the day it was dismissed.
Findings
Magistrate Judge Weir found that while “Maricle’s role as a long-time circuit judge in the Commonwealth bespeaks, at least nominally, a person of character”, that “[t]he problem with [Maricle's] release centers narrowly on the danger that Maricle would, if released, obstruct or attempt to obstruct justice.”
Further, Weir found that the “past conduct evidence provided at the detention hearing” by the United States solidified the concerns that Maricle should be detained. What Maricle is accused of, “[j]ury tampering and subornation of perjury- with the direct design of manipulating results for or against particular litigants – surely qualify[s] as the gravest of public trust betrayals”. In addition to testimony, “[t]he other incident of judicial misconduct allegedly finds corroboration on a tape, . . . featuring Maricle himself”.
For that reason Weir issued his statement “that no set of conditions will reasonably assure against the danger that [Maricle] would, if release pending trial, obstruct or attempt to obstruct justice” and that “[t]he Court simply has no confidence that [Maricle] would follow court restrictions”.
Judge Cletus Maricle can appeal this order of his detention.
