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Date: 12-19-2017
Case Style:
United States of America v. Bogdana Alexandrovna Mobley
Case Number: 6-17-CR-10142
Judge:
Court: United States District Court for the District of Kansas (Sedgwick County)
Plaintiff's Attorney: United States District Attorney's Office in Wichita
Defendant's Attorney:
Description:
Wichita, Kansas international kidnapping criminal defense lawyer represented the defendant.
Bogdana Alexandrovna Mobley has been charged with international parental kidnapping in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1204. She appeals from the district court's order affirming the magistrate judge's pretrial detention order. Exercising jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 1291 and 18 U.S.C. § 3145(c), we remand for further proceedings.
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Mobley is a 36-year-old woman with dual citizenship in Russia and the United States. She has one child from her first marriage and two children from her second marriage. In April 2014, in the midst of contentious divorce and custody proceedings with her second husband, Mobley took her children from Kansas to Russia; at the time, she was pregnant with their second child together, who was born in Russia. Mobley lived there with the children for over three years in violation of court orders issued in her domestic case, which gave her husband joint legal and shared residential custody pending the dissolution of their marriage. In September 2017, Mobley left the children with relatives and returned to file child-support paperwork in Kansas, where she was arrested by the FBI. The children remain in Russia.
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The Bail Reform Act, 18 U.S.C. § 3142, sets out the framework for evaluating whether pretrial detention is appropriate. In general, persons charged with a crime are not detained pretrial. See id. § 3142(b); see also United States v. Salerno, 481 U.S. 739, 755 (1987) ("In our society liberty is the norm, and detention prior to trial or without trial is the carefully limited exception."). But a defendant may be detained pending trial if a judicial officer finds that "no condition or combination of conditions will reasonably assure the appearance of the person as required and the safety of any other person and the community." 18 U.S.C. § 3142(e)(1). A judicial officer may make such a finding only after holding a hearing under § 3142(f). United States v. Cisneros, 328 F.3d 610, 616 (10th Cir. 2003). The government bears the burden of proving risk of flight by a preponderance of the evidence and dangerousness to any other person or the community by clear and convincing evidence.
United States v. Mobley, No. 17-3234 (10th Cir. Dec 19, 2017)
Outcome: For the foregoing reasons, we remand for the district court to issue findings of fact and to explain the reasoning behind the detention decision or, alternatively, to order Mobley's pretrial release subject to appropriate conditions.
Plaintiff's Experts:
Defendant's Experts:
Comments: