USA v. NEVES et al

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UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
DISTRICT OF MAINE
UNITED STATES, 	)
)
v. 	)
) 	No. 2:24-cr-00090-LEW-1
JUSTIN NEVES, 	)
)
Defendant 	)
ORDER DENYING THE DEFENDANT’S MOTION TO
PARTICIPATE IN THE STRAFFORD COUNTY JAIL’S
THERAPEUTIC COMMUNITY TREATMENT PROGRAM
Before me is the Defendant Justin Neves’s motion to participate in the
Strafford County Jail’s Therapeutic Community Treatment Program (the “TC”
Program). See Motion to Participate in TC Program (ECF No. 33) at 1. 	Neves was
originally 	detained 	pending 	trial 	in 	the 	Strafford 	County 	Jail, 	but 	he 	was
subsequently transferred to the Cumberland County Jail and then to the Somerset
County Jail. 	Id. 	Neves’s attorney is based in Portland, Maine, which is ninety
minutes from the Somerset County Jail. 	See Reply to Response (ECF No. 35) at 2.
Neves requests that I issue an order recommending his transfer to either the
Cumberland County Jail or the Strafford County Jail immediately before and during
trial to allow him better access to his attorney. 	Id. 	This position, coupled with the
parties’ arguments below, reinforces my understanding that the primary goal of
Neves’s motion is no longer participation in the Strafford County Jail’s TC Program.
On October 18, 2024, I held a hearing on the pending motion at which both the
Government 	and 	Neves’s 	attorney 	provided 	supplemental 	oral 	argument.
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Defense counsel argued that regardless of the Government’s intent, its decision to
transfer Neves to a location ninety minutes from Portland violates the Sixth
Amendment by impeding Neves’s ability to meet with counsel to adequately prepare
his defense. 	Defense counsel also emphasized that trial preparation will require
spending a significant amount of time with Neves in person because he faces a drug
conspiracy charge, trial is set for January 2025, and there are around 45,000 pages
of discovery to review with him, the majority of which is subject to a protective order.
In response, the Government explained that the United States Marshal
Service (USMS) relocated Neves to the Somerset County Jail for safety reasons
because the conspiracy in which he was allegedly involved relates to other cases
pending against members of the gang to which Neves allegedly belongs and rival
gangs, 	and 	the 	defendants 	and 	witnesses 	in 	those 	cases 	are 	housed 	in 	the
Cumberland County and Strafford County jails. 	The ninety minute drive from
Portland to the Somerset County Jail, the Government argues, does not constitute an
intrusion upon Neves’s Sixth Amendment right to the effective assistance of counsel.
The Government also clarified that the volume of discovery is typical for a drug case
of this nature, and mentioned that that although the Somerset County Jail does not
have a TC Program, it does offer mental health and substance use disorder resources.
I decline Neves’s request to recommend his transfer. First, “[t]he law is clear
that ‘[a] pre-trial detainee does not have the right to be housed at the facility of his
choice, nor does he have the right to remain in the institution to which he was
initially, 	or 	even 	at 	one 	time, 	assigned.’” 	United 	States 	v. 	Stile,
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No. 1:11-cr-00185-JAW, 2013 WL 12195872, at *1 (D. Me. Nov. 27, 2013) (quoting
Falcon v. United States Bureau of Prisons, 852 F.Supp. 1413, 1420 (S.D. Ill. 1994)).
Second, I lack the legal authority to intervene in the USMS’s determination
regarding pre-trial detainee placement, and the propriety of meddling in that
decision-making process at all is questionable. Id. at 2. Congress expressly obligates
the USMS to “provide for the safe-keeping of any person arrested, or held under
authority of any enactment of Congress pending commitment to an institution.”
18 U.S.C. § 4086; see also 28 C.F.R. § 0.111(k). 	“Courts have repeatedly recognized
that this ‘open-ended’ grant of authority favors judicial deference to the USMS
regarding placement of detainees.” 	United States v. Thomas, No. 3:20-cr-51 (SRU),
2022 WL 2315624, at *4-5 (D. Conn. June 28, 2022) (collecting cases) (holding that a
USMS decision about pre-trial detainee placement was discretionary and presumably
made by weighing “administrative concerns regarding access to counsel, capacity,
expenses, services, and other crucial facts of which [the court] should not review”).
Even if I had the authority to order Neves’s transfer, I would not do so. Neves
has offered insufficient evidence to prove that his relocation to the Somerset County
Jail, ninety minutes away from his attorney in Portland, constitutes a deliberate
government intrusion upon his attorney-client relationship, much less that he has
been demonstrably prejudiced by that intrusion. 	See United States v. Mastroianni,
749 	F.2d 900, 	907 	(1st 	Cir. 	1984) 	(“A 	Sixth 	Amendment 	violation 	cannot 	be
established without a showing that there is a ‘realistic possibility of injury” to
defendants or ‘benefit to the [United States]’ as a result of the government’s intrusion
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into the attorney-client relationship.”) (citing Weatherford v. Bursey, 429 U.S. 545,
558 	(1977) 	and 	United 	States 	v. 	Morrison, 	449 	U.S. 	361, 	366 	(1981)). 	The
persuasiveness of Neves’s argument is also diluted by the fact that his preferred
location, the Strafford County Jail, is located more than sixty minutes from Portland.
For the aforementioned reasons, Neves’s motion is DENIED.
NOTICE
In accordance with Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure 59(a), a party
may serve and file an objection to this order within fourteen (14) days after
being served with a copy thereof.
Failure to file a timely objection shall constitute a waiver of the right
to review by the district court and to any further appeal of this order.
Dated: October 31, 2024
/s/ Karen Frink Wolf
United States Magistrate Judge
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