Plea & Sentencing – Plea Withdrawal

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7^th Circuit Court of Appeals

Case Name: United States of America v. Warren N. Barr, III

Case No.: 19-1238

Officials: MANION, KANNE, and BARRETT, Circuit Judges.

Focus: Plea & Sentencing – Plea Withdrawal

In 2014, the federal government charged Warren Barr with federal crimes for his role in a fraudulent real-estate-selling scheme in Chicago. But when law-enforcement officers went to arrest Barr, they discovered he was living in Saudi Arabia. For months, FBI agents attempted to extradite Barr to the United States. Despite this effort, and before the agents could get to Barr, Saudi Arabian officials detained him for unrelated conduct.

Thereafter, Barr spent several months in a Saudi Arabian prison—and once he was released, federal agents brought him back to the United States to face the federal charges against him. Barr pled guilty to making false statements to a financial institution, and he then filed a variety of motions: he asked the district court to allow more time for newly retained counsel to obtain government clearance and review classified materials; to dismiss the indictment; and to withdraw his guilty plea. The district court denied these motions and entered an order finding Barr guilty.

At his sentencing hearing, Barr tried to argue that his time in Saudi Arabia should be a mitigating factor. The district court disagreed and prevented Barr from advancing this argument at the hearing. Frustrated with this result, Barr sought the judge’s recusal. The judge denied the recusal motion and sentenced Barr to 87 months’ imprisonment.

Now Barr challenges his sentence and the district court’s orders denying his motions for additional time, the dismissal of the indictment, the withdrawal of his guilty plea, and the judge’s recusal. Because we find no error in any of these rulings, we affirm.

Affirmed

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Derek A Hawkins is trademark corporate counsel for Harley-Davidson. Hawkins oversees the prosecution and maintenance of the Harley-Davidson’s international trademark portfolio in emerging markets.