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Say_What Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Oct-03-03 09:43 PM
Original message
Venezuela Regulator Seizes TV News Equipment
See background article below for info on Bush I's pal Gustavo Cisneros and Globovision's role in the failed coup in April, 2002.

<clips>

CARACAS (AP)--Venezuelan media regulators cut cables to satellite dishes and seized broadcasting equipment at the 24-hour news broadcaster Globovision on Friday, the channel said.

Authorities with the state telecommunications committee, Conatel, took equipment used to broadcast live reports outside the channel studios, but didn't remove the equipment because of protesters who had gathered outside, said Globovision Director Alberto Federico Ravell.

"This is the first step they are taking to shut down the channel," Ravell said.

Conatel officials could not be immediately reached for comment.

<http://framehosting.dowjonesnews.com/sample/samplestory.asp?StoryID=2003100323030004&Take=1>



<clips>
Media accused in failed coup
Venezuelan news executives defend themselves against allegations that they suppressed facts as the ousted president returned.

... Globovision, the country's top 24-hour news station and CNN affiliate, spent much of the day rebroadcasting upbeat footage of Chavez's ouster. An announcer repeatedly cautioned viewers, "We are living in times of political change." Viewers were urged to be "prudent" and avoid spreading "false alarms" and "rumors."

Moreover, Globovision president Alberto Ravell reportedly telephoned CNN offices in Atlanta to request the U.S. network join the blackout. CNN's Spanish-language station was giving ample coverage to Saturday's events, making it almost the only source of news for those with access to cable or satellite.

... Whatever the cause, news coverage was virtually nonexistent after Saturday's meeting, in which the media executives rolled up at the palace in shiny SUVs and limousines. They had been summoned by the interim defense minister, Gen. Hector Ramirez, to meet with interim President Pedro Carmona.

The group was led by Cisneros, the Venevision owner and one of the country's wealthiest and most influential figures. The Cisneros Group, which he heads, also holds a major stake in Spanish-language broadcasting in the United States. A frequent visitor to Washington, Cisneros is a friend of former President George Bush. The two have made several fishing trips together in Venezuela.

Also present were Ravell of Globovision; Miguel Otero, publisher of the El Nacional group of newspapers; and Marcel Granier of RCTV.

<http://www.stpetersburgtimes.com/2002/04/18/Worldandnation/Media_accused_in_fail.shtml>


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rooboy Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Oct-03-03 09:45 PM
Response to Original message
1. Having seen a documentary on their role in the 2002 coup...
pulling down that channel is an understandable move. It was nothing less than sedition.

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9215 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Oct-04-03 01:37 PM
Response to Reply #1
11. "Sedition". Nice catch!
As in "Alien and Sedition Acts". I'm going to look into this.
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cprise Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Oct-03-03 11:17 PM
Response to Original message
2. Lest anyone in the USA get uppity
Voting equipment manufacturer and major Republican backer Diebold Inc. declared copyright protections for web links to Diebold's website, and had BlackBoxVoting.org abruptly torn down and confiscated. This website published information exposing insecurities and conflicts of interest in the implementation of Diebold's computerized voting equipment.

http://www.talion.com/blackboxvoting.org.htm
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patdem Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Oct-03-03 11:23 PM
Response to Original message
3. Al Jazeera and Al Arayba was pulled from Iraq and they were not
hailing the overthrow of the government ...since there IS not government in Iraq...they were reporting news that did not put the governing council in the best light...so goose meet gander...
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The Magistrate Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Oct-04-03 01:02 AM
Response to Original message
4. Good
By local standards, Col. Chavez has been remarkably mild towards his opponents. There is no need to tolerate those who actually plot counter-revolution. No government has ever knowingly extended freedom to those seeking its violent overthrow.
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Minstrel Boy Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Oct-04-03 02:06 PM
Response to Reply #4
12. Absolutely.
Chavez is to be applauded for his restraint and his reasonable measures to safeguard Venezuelan democracy.

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annagull Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Oct-04-03 01:56 AM
Response to Original message
5. Fox News on all channels, every channel
Is that a free press? No, corporate press, they air whatever is in their best interest bottom line. I wish we could get some cables cut here, and start all over.
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Judi Lynn Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Oct-04-03 04:15 AM
Response to Original message
6. Maybe Venezuelan-watching DU-er's have already read this
Edited on Sat Oct-04-03 05:08 AM by JudiLyn
but I'm sure it will appall anyone reading it a second time!

(snip) Venezuela's Media Coup
by Naomi Klein
the Nation
February 17, 2003
Poor Endy Chávez, outfielder for the Navegantes del Magallanes, one of Venezuela's big baseball teams. Every time he comes up to bat, the local TV sportscasters start in with the jokes. "Here comes Chávez. No, not the pro-Cuban dictator Chávez, the other Chávez." Or, "This Chávez hits baseballs, not the Venezuelan people."

In Venezuela, even colour commentators are enlisted in the commercial media's open bid to oust the democratically elected government of Hugo Chávez. Andrés Izarra, a Venezuelan television journalist, says that the campaign has done so much violence to truthful information on the national airwaves that the four private TV stations have effectively forfeited their right to broadcast. "I think their licenses should be revoked," he says. (snip)



Venezuela's Media Coup
Venezuela's private television stations are owned by wealthy families with serious financial stakes in defeating Chávez. Venevisión, the most-watched network, is owned by Gustavo Cisneros, a mogul dubbed "the joint venture king" by the New York Post. The Cisneros Group has partnered with many top U.S. brands - from AOL and Coca-Cola to Pizza Hut and Playboy - to become a gatekeeper to the Latin American market. In Venezuela, even colour commentators are enlisted in the commercial media's open bid to oust the democratically elected government of Hugo Chávez. Andrés Izarra, a Venezuelan television journalist, says that the campaign has done so much violence to truthful information on the national airwaves that the four private TV stations have effectively forfeited their right to broadcast. "I think their licenses should be revoked," he says.

It's the sort of extreme pronouncement one has come to expect from Chávez, known for nicknaming the stations "the four horsemen of the apocalypse." Izarra, however, is harder to dismiss. A squeaky clean made-for-TV type, he worked as assignment editor in charge of Latin America at CNN en Español until he was hired as news production manager for Venezuela's highest-rated newscast, El Observador, on RCTV. (snip/...)

(snip) in the days leading up to the April coup, Venevisión, RCTV, Globovisión and Televen replaced regular programming with relentless anti-Chávez speeches, interrupted only for commercials calling on viewers to take to the streets: "Not one step backward. Out! Leave now!"

The ads were sponsored by the oil industry, but the stations carried them free as "public service announcements." They went further: on the night of the coup, Cisneros's station played host to meetings among the plotters, including Carmona. The president of Venezuela's broadcasting chamber co-signed the decree to dissolve the elected National Assembly. The stations openly rejoiced at the news of Chávez's "resignation." When pro-Chávez forces mobilized for his return, a total news blackout was imposed. (snip/...)

http://www.canadiandimension.mb.ca/extra/d0217nk.htm




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9215 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Oct-04-03 01:31 PM
Response to Reply #6
10. Call me a wishful thinker
but I get the feeling that Chavez is winning this battle. He is fighting them hard and using state power as it should be used against terrorists and foreign usurpers. IMO operations like Cisneros's will become increasingly cut off from their political base of support as the BFEE grapples with so many other scandals, particularly the CIA leak scandal that is looming large.

I just want to see a world with the BFEE GONE!
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Judi Lynn Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Oct-04-03 05:24 AM
Response to Original message
7. Anti-Chavez anti-Democrats strike out
Edited on Sat Oct-04-03 05:50 AM by JudiLyn
Explosion Occurs at Venezuelan State-Run Media Watchdog After Regulators Seize Equipment From TV News Channel
By Christopher Toothaker Associated Press Writer
Published: Oct 4, 2003


CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) - An explosion shattered windows and destroyed the entrance to the headquarters of Venezuela's state-run media watchdog, hours after media regulators disconnected cables and seized equipment at a news station critical of the government, said the institution's director. Nobody was injured.

Alvin Lezama, director of the state communications committee Conatel, said an explosive device was thrown from a motorcycle passing by the building late Friday in Caracas. He said a security guard and two national guardsmen were inside the building at the time of the blast, but they were not injured.

Information Minister Jesse Chacon accused Venezuela's mostly opposition-sided news media of inciting the attack, but Chacon did not accuse any group or individual for the explosion.

"When a media outlet is used as a tool for inciting people, this is the result," Chacon told the state-run TV channel. "I don't want to give any opinion regarding who could be behind this." (snip/...)

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/news/archive/2003/10/04/international0304EDT0438.DTL

Find out whodunnit by doing a roll call in Miami's Little Havana or Hialeah! Internet searches will tell you Cuban "exiles" have been friendly with similar elements in Venezuela for decades, and Venezuela has been used as a haven by violent Cuban "exiles" like Luis Posada Carriles, etc.

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9215 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Oct-04-03 12:27 PM
Response to Original message
8. Cisneros--Bush link.....close
This link has a fantastic discussion of Cisneros+Bushie+Miami exile fascist connections:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/cgi-bin/duforum/duboard.cgi?az=show_thread&om=12944&forum=DCForumID61&omm=0


George Bush senior to spend luxury holiday with Gustavo Cisneros
<clips>
Former US President George P. Bush is heading to the Dominican Republic for a ;uxury holiday, where he will spend quality time with anti-government Venezuelan media tycoon Gustavo Cisneros, who President Hugo Chavez Frias accuses of leading a push for a coup d'etat to have him forcibly removed from office.
The Venezuelan leader has threatened to take action against many privately-owned media companies ... particularly the four privately-owned TV stations ... for broadcasting "seditious opposition propaganda" and a series of advertisements urging Venezuelans to support the work stoppage, which has had devastating effects on the country's economy.
Bush is set to arrive on the Caribbean island next Tuesday, where he will stay at the Casa de Campo resort owned by the Fanjul brothers, Alfi and Jose ... he will then join the Venezuelan media tycoon in several rounds of golf in the town of La Romana.
There are strong indications that Bush will also meet secretly with corruption-impeached former Venezuelan President Carlos Andres Perez.
This will be Cisneros' second meeting with a former US President in less than a month, after holding talks with Jimmy Carter in Caracas several weeks ago. Carter returned to Venezuela to break the political deadlock following a direct invitation from Cisneros to do so.

<http://www.vheadline.com/readnews.asp?id=2092>



This is about the "Cisneros crime family" with a court case involving murder, drugs, etc. Check out the important DU discussion at:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/cgi-bin/duforum/duboard.cgi?az=show_thread&om=7072&forum=DCForumID71 :

http://www.kscourts.org/ca10/cases/2003/05/03-2009.htm
PUBLISH
UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS
TENTH CIRCUIT

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, Plaintiff - Appellee, v. LORENA CISNEROS, Defendant - Appellant. No. 03-2009
APPEAL FROM THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
FOR THE DISTRICT OF NEW MEXICO
(D.C. No. CR-01-1709-MCA)

Dorothy C. Sanchez, Albuquerque, New Mexico, for Defendant - Appellant.
Steven Craig Yarbrough, Assistant United States Attorney (David C. Iglesias, United States Attorney, and Laura Fashing, Assistant United States Attorney, on the brief), Albuquerque, New Mexico, for Plaintiff - Appellee.

Before SEYMOUR,EBEL, and HARTZ, Circuit Judges.

EBEL, Circuit Judge.

Lorena Cisneros appeals an order of the United States District Court for the District of New Mexico upholding the determination by a magistrate judge of that court that Cisneros be detained pending trial. By ordering her detention pending trial, the New Mexico district court revoked a prior order of a federal magistrate judge in Arizona that had permitted Cisneros's conditional release until trial. Cisneros argues on appeal that the New Mexico district court did not have the authority to reconsider the original release order and, even if it did, it should have concluded as a result of its review under the Bail Reform Act, 18 U.S.C. § 3141 et seq., that Cisneros was entitled to conditional release pending trial. We hold that the New Mexico district court was authorized to reconsider the Arizona magistrate judge's release order, and we affirm the district court order denying pretrial release to Cisneros in this case.
I.
This case arises out of the government's investigation and pending prosecution of an alleged criminal enterprise known as the Cisneros Organization. The Cisneros Organization has been under investigation by state and federal authorities since at least 1995, and members of the Organization are alleged to have committed murder; manufactured and distributed methamphetamine, cocaine, and marijuana; laundered money generated by criminal activity; possessed and sold stolen vehicles; and tampered with and intimidated witnesses against them in criminal prosecutions, including through the murder of such witnesses. Indeed, in 1998, state prosecutors were forced to file a motion dismissing their case against the Cisneros Organization after three prosecution witnesses were murdered. The Cisneros Organization allegedly operates in New Mexico and Arizona, and one of its leaders is Luis Cisneros, the husband of Lorena Cisneros ("Cisneros"), the appellant in the instant case.
On September 19, 2002, a federal grand jury in New Mexico returned a seventeen-count, second superseding indictment against nine alleged members of the Cisneros Organization. Lorena Cisneros was named in two counts of the indictment: the counts alleging a Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Conspiracy (RICO conspiracy) (count two), 18 U.S.C. § 1962(d), and a Stolen Vehicle Conspiracy (count fifteen), 18 U.S.C. §§ 511, 2312, 2313, 2321. Among the specific predicate acts of racketeering activity underlying the RICO conspiracy charge was an alleged conspiracy to murder a potential witnesses against the Cisneros Organization, Jose Moreno, Sr. Moreno and his son were murdered in their home on January 12, 2000.
Lorena Cisneros was arrested on September 20, 2002, in Phoenix, Arizona, where she is a resident, on a warrant issued by the New Mexico district court. Pursuant to Fed. R. Crim. P. 40, Cisneros was brought before a magistrate judge in Phoenix, the government moved to have her detained pending trial, and a detention hearing was held there by Magistrate Judge Lawrence O. Anderson over several days in September and October 2002. On October 4, 2002, Judge Anderson issued an order denying the government's request that Cisneros be detained until trial. Judge Anderson concluded that, under the Bail Reform Act, 18 U.S.C. § 3142(e)(g), the government had not sustained its burden of proof by a preponderance of the evidence that Cisneros was a serious flight risk, nor had it sustained its burden of proof by clear and convincing evidence that Cisneros was a danger to the community. Accordingly, Judge Anderson ordered her released on her own recognizance, but he imposed conditions on her release. The conditions included restricted travel, prohibitions on communicating with certain individuals believed to be part of the Cisneros Organization, and required drug testing. Judge Anderson also ordered Cisneros to appear in New Mexico district court to be arraigned on the charges in the indictment.
Cisneros appeared for arraignment before Magistrate Judge Don J. Svet in Albuquerque, New Mexico on October 24, 2002. At that appearance, Judge Svet adopted the release conditions imposed by Judge Anderson, and Cisneros remained free pending trial.
Approximately one month later, on November 27, 2002, the government filed a motion with the New Mexico district court seeking an order revoking Cisneros's release order and detaining her pending trial. The government claimed that following the Arizona detention hearing it had learned of Cisneros's personal involvement in the conspiracy to murder Jose Moreno, Sr. The motion was heard by Judge Svet, and a hearing was held on December 6, 2002. Judge Svet considered the transcripts of the Arizona detention hearing before Judge Anderson and additional evidence introduced by the government. The new evidence included a transcript of Cisneros's grand jury testimony; a letter Cisneros allegedly retrieved from a car dealer in El Paso, Texas; transcripts of phone calls between Cisneros and her husband, Luis Cisneros; and additional testimony from Detective Armando Saldate, who had testified at the Arizona detention hearing. The government argued that this evidence indicated that Cisneros was aware of, and assisted her husband in completing, the plan to murder Jose Moreno, Sr. At the conclusion of the hearing, Judge Svet found that Cisneros was both a flight risk and a danger to the community and ordered that she be detained pending trial.
Cisneros appealed Judge Svet's order, and that appeal was heard by New Mexico District Judge M. Christina Armijo at a hearing on December 13, 2002. On December 23, 2002, Judge Armijo issued an order affirming Judge Svet's detention order. Judge Armijo, reviewing the detention order de novo, found that the government had proved by clear and convincing evidence that no conditions of release could be imposed on Cisneros that would reasonably assure the safety of the community and that the government had proved by a preponderance of the evidence that Cisneros posed a serious risk of flight such that no conditions of release would reasonably assure Cisneros's presence at trial. Cisneros, therefore, remained in custody.
Cisneros timely filed a notice of appeal to this Court, and we have jurisdiction pursuant to 18 U.S.C. § 3145(c) and 28 U.S.C. § 1291.
II.
Cisneros advances two arguments in support of her contention that her detention order should be reversed. First, she argues that the New Mexico district court lacked the authority under 18 U.S.C. § 3145(f) to reconsider the original release order entered by the federal magistrate judge in Arizona. This is a question of the construction and applicability of a federal statute that we review de novo. See United States v. Telluride Co., 146 F.3d 1241, 1244 (10th Cir. 1998). Second, she argues that even if review by the New Mexico district court was appropriate, that court erred when it determined that she should be detained under the Bail Reform Act, 18 U.S.C. § 3142. Analysis of this claim involves questions of fact and mixed questions of law and fact. We apply de novo review to mixed questions of law and fact concerning the detention or release decision, but we accept the district court's findings of historical fact which support that decision unless they are clearly erroneous. See United States v. Stricklin, 932 F.2d 1353, 1355 (10th Cir. 1991)(per curiam); United States v. Montalvo-Murillo, 876 F.2d 826, 830 (10th Cir. 1989) (per curiam), rev'd on other grounds, 495 U.S. 711 (1990).
A.
We consider first whether the New Mexico district court had the authority to revoke the Arizona magistrate judge's release order and enter its own detention order. The Bail Reform Act of 1984 provides two avenues through which a release or detention order can be reconsidered prior to review on appeal by a court of appeals. The first avenue is provided by 18 U.S.C. § 3142(f), which specifies the hearing procedure that must be followed before a defendant is detained:
(f) Detention hearing.--The judicial officer shall hold a hearing to determine whether any condition or combination of conditions set forth in subsection (c) of this section will reasonably assure the appearance of such person as required and the safety of any other person and the community . . . .
. . . .
The hearing may be reopened before or after a determination by the judicial officer, at any time before trial if the judicial officer finds that information exists that was not known to the movant at the time of the hearing and that has a material bearing on the issue of whether there are conditions of release that will reasonably assure the appearance of as required and the safety of any other person and the community.
By its terms, this section applies to reconsideration of a detention or release order by the same judicial officer who entered the initial order. In addition, reconsideration is permissible under this section only when there is new information that would materially influence the judgment about whether there are conditions of release which will reasonably assure that the defendant will not flee and will not harm any other person or the community.
The second avenue is provided by 18 U.S.C. § 3145(a) and (b). These sections permit the government or a defendant to file a "motion for revocation" of a release or detention order. However, such a motion is only permissible "f a person ordered released by a magistrate judge, or by a person other than a judge of a court having original jurisdiction over the offense and other than a Federal appellate court . . . ." 18 U.S.C. § 3145(a), (b). Section 3145 also requires that the revocation motion be filed with the court having original jurisdiction over the offense, but unlike § 3142(f), § 3145 does not require that new information be available before a release or detention order can be reconsidered and revoked. Id.
The government's motion seeking revocation of Cisneros's conditions of release did not cite any statutory provision as the basis for the motion. The parties have assumed in their arguments before us that § 3142(f) provided the basis for the government's motion seeking revocation of the Arizona release order. Cisneros and the government argue over whether the evidence introduced by the government before Judge Svet constituted new, material information as required by § 3142(f) before a detention hearing can be reopened. We conclude, however, that § 3142(f) could not have been the basis for the government's revocation motion.
Revocation of a prior release order under § 3142(f) is available only when the review of a detention or release order is being conducted by the same judicial officer who entered the order and when new, material information is available. Here, the release order that was challenged by the government is the one entered by Judge Anderson in Arizona, and it was reviewed by different judicial officers, Magistrate Judge Svet and District Judge Armijo, in New Mexico. Therefore, § 3142(f) could not have been the basis of the government's motion or of the review by the New Mexico district court.
Section 3145(a), however, is an appropriate basis for the government's motion. That section states:
(a) Review of a release order.--If a person is ordered released by a magistrate judge, or by a person other than a judge of a court having original jurisdiction over the offense and other than a Federal appellate court--
(1) the attorney for the Government may file, with the court having original jurisdiction over the offense, a motion for revocation of the order . . . .
18 U.S.C. § 3145(a)(1). This section covers precisely the circumstances of this case. Cisneros was ordered released by Judge Anderson in Arizona, who is "a magistrate judge, or . . . a person other than a judge of a court having original jurisdiction over the offense . . . ." Id. The government filed its revocation motion in the United States District Court for the District of New Mexico, which is "the court having original jurisdiction over the offense" because the District of New Mexico is the district in which the indictment charging Cisneros was returned and in which the prosecution is pending. See United States v. El-Edwy, 272 F.3d 149, 154 (2d Cir. 2001); United States v. Torres, 86 F.3d 1029, 1031 (11th Cir. 1996). Therefore, we construe the government's motion as having been made pursuant to § 3145(a)(1). See United States v. Jones, 804 F. Supp. 1081, 1090 (S.D. Ind. 1992) (construing government's revocation motion before Indiana district court as having been made pursuant to § 3145(a), where defendant was indicted in Indiana, the original detention hearing was held in the district of arrest by a magistrate judge in Arizona, a second detention hearing was held after arraignment by a magistrate judge in Indiana, and an Indiana district court reviewed the prior hearings before making its own detention ruling).
Although the government properly filed its revocation motion in the New Mexico district court, the review of the Arizona release order was conducted in the first instance by Magistrate Judge Svet. Only after Judge Svet entered his detention order, and Cisneros appealed it, did District Judge Armijo consider the government's motion. This is improper procedure for processing a § 3145(a) motion. The motion should be considered and ruled upon in the first instance by a district judge in the court of original jurisdiction. See United States v. Evans, 62 F.3d 1233, 1239 (9th Cir. 1995) (Wallace, C.J., concurring) (stating in a case involving review under § 3145 of magistrate judge's detention order that "nly that district court has the authority to review the magistrate judge's order"); cf. United States v. Cheeseman, 783 F.2d 38, 41 (2d Cir. 1986) ("he appropriate course for the Government would have been to await the setting of release conditions and the issuance of release orders by the Magistrate, and then pursue its appellate rights, initially to the District Judge, pursuant to 18 U.S.C. § 3145(a) . . . .").
The text of § 3145(a) supports the conclusion that a motion to revoke a magistrate judge's release order should be ruled on directly by a district judge. We agree with the reasoning of a district court from another circuit that explained:
It is clear from the wording of Section 3145(a) that "a court having original jurisdiction over the offense" must be interpreted as the district judge assigned to the case . . . hat section suggests a hierarchy for reviewing a magistrate's decision. In other words, Section 3145(a) authorizes a district judge to review a decision made by a magistrate judge, but it does not confer the same authority upon a magistrate judge in the charging district when the challenged order was issued by a magistrate judge in the arresting district.
United States v. Johnson, 858 F. Supp. 119, 122 (N.D. Ind. 1994). The hierarchy suggested by § 3145(a) is consistent with the ultimate decision-making power and continuing jurisdiction over the actions of magistrate judges that district court judges possess. See United States v. First Nat'l Bank of Rush Springs, 576 F.2d 852, 853 (10th Cir. 1978) (per curiam); United States v. Maull, 773 F.2d 1479, 1486 (8th Cir. 1985) (en banc) (stating, in the context of decision-making under § 3145(a) and (b), that "'the magistrate acts subsidiary to and only in aid of the district court,' and that 'the entire process takes place under the district court's total control and jurisdiction.'") (quoting United States v. Raddatz, 447 U.S. 667, 681 (1980)). As we read § 3145(a), therefore, Judge Svet had no authority to rule on the government's motion to revoke the Arizona magistrate judge's release order.
This error in procedure does not, however, affect the outcome of this case. Because Judge Armijo reviewed Judge Svet's detention order de novo and considered all of the evidence that had been offered to that point--including both the evidence submitted to Magistrate Judge Anderson in Arizona and Magistrate Judge Svet in New Mexico--the fact that Judge Svet ruled on the matter is irrelevant.(1) In fact, it is within the district court's authority to review a magistrate's release or detention order sua sponte. See United States v. Spilotro, 786 F.2d 808, 815 (8th Cir. 1986). Therefore, we treat the government's motion as having been made properly to Judge Armijo in the first instance. See Jones, 804 F. Supp. at 1090. Accordingly, we conclude that the district court had authority under § 3145(a) to review the Arizona release order and to revoke that order upon proper findings..
....more
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Lori Price CLG Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Oct-04-03 12:40 PM
Response to Original message
9. "...cut cables to satellite dishes and seized broadcasting equipment "
Edited on Sat Oct-04-03 12:41 PM by Lori Price CLG
Hmmm.... sounds good to me, if applied to Faux, CensoringNewsNetwork, and MoreSh*tNoBrainsCable, :)

Too bad that tactic was not implemented in preventing the coup d'etat in the United States in 2000...

-Lori Price
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