The trial of the husband and wife charged in connection with a $4.4 million disaster recovery fraud won’t happen any time soon.
A federal judge on Wednesday granted defendant Sasha Charlemagne’s request for more time to file motions, giving her until 60 days after the government has produced all discovery — or the evidence it intends to use at trial. In a motion filed on Tuesday, Charlemagne’s attorney, Pamela Colon, said that hasn’t happened yet.
“Further,” she wrote, “the undersigned understands that the remainder of the discovery includes hundreds, if not thousands, of hours of closed circuit video that must be reviewed prior to the filing of any motions on behalf of Mrs. Charlemagne.”
Colon wrote that neither Assistant U.S. Attorney Daniel Huston nor her co-defendant, Davidson Charlemagne, had any objection to the motion. U.S. Magistrate Judge Emile Henderson III granted the motion and continued a trial set for Feb. 3 to an unspecified future date.
The Charlemagnes were initially indicted on charges of money laundering conspiracy, and Davidson Charlemagne was further charged with government program fraud and wire fraud. At the same time, former V.I. Housing Finance Authority Chief Operating Officer Darin Richardson was charged with criminal conflict of interest and making material false statements to a federal agent.
The charges came after a two-year federal investigation into a contract to manage and store lumber shipped to the territory in the wake of hurricanes Irma and Maria. Richardson, as chief operating officer at VIHFA, oversaw the bidding process and later awarded the contract to Island Services Group. That company subcontracted the work to the Charlemagnes’ company, D&S Trucking. Over the next year, the value of the nearly $3 million contract ballooned to approximately $4.4 million, even though little actual work had been done, prosecutors alleged.
Prosecutors added eight counts of making false claims against the United States to the list of charges against the Charlemagnes in a superseding indictment filed in October. Those charges stemmed from timesheets Sasha Charlemagne submitted to HUD for reimbursement in which she claimed to have worked eight-hour days at the woodpiles when, according to prosecutors, she wasn’t even in the territory.
More charges followed in a second superseding indictment filed in U.S. District Court last month and Sasha Charlemagne was further charged with wire fraud. Simultaneously, prosecutors added charges of: bank fraud; making a false statement on a loan or credit application; and money laundering against Richardson, whose case was severed from that of the other defendants in September.
In that document, prosecutors alleged that Sasha Charlemagne’s falsified timesheets “were the basis of at least one electronic wire payment from VIHFA to ISG and D&S Trucking” and stated that a $59,432 payment traveled from the Housing Finance Authority’s bank account through First Bank of Puerto Rico and United Fidelity Bank in Evansville, Ind. — leading to the wire fraud charge.
Richardson and both Charlemagnes pleaded not guilty to the new charges during Dec. 19 arraignments, during which new trial dates were set according to the Speedy Trial of Act of 1974, which requires that defendants be tried within 70 days of indictment. During that appearance, all parties acknowledged that the actual trial date was likely to be much later.
In Wednesday’s order, Henderson wrote that Sasha Charlemagne’s reason for needing an extension — in particular, “needing additional time to review voluminous discovery that would be the basis for preparing any pretrial motions — would serve the ends of justice and outweigh the best interest of the public and the defendant in a speedy trial.”
