Contact
Subscribe


Minor (But Suggestive) Update Regarding Nakoula Basseley Nakoula of "Innocence of Muslims" Fame

Sep 19, 2012
By .
Effluvia

Earlier in my posts on Nakoula Basseley Nakoula of "Innocence of Muslim" fame I offered thoughts about why Nakoula's film-related activities might lead the U.S. Probation Office to start proceedings to revoke his supervised release in his federal fraud case.

Since then, I've been watching PACER for any indication that the probation officer has initiated revocation proceedings. That hasn't happened as of this writing. However, last night an attorney filed a request for approval of substitution of counsel in that fraud case — that is, a request for the judge's permission to appear on behalf of Nakoula in the place of his former attorney. Since the case is over, and wouldn't normally require any further appearance by an attorney — PACER still shows it as closed — the request strongly suggests that Nakoula and his attorney believe that probation revocation proceedings may be imminent. There would be no reason to file the substitution otherwise. Filing the substitution means that the new attorney will get automatic and immediate notification through PACER of any filing by the U.S. Probation Office. (I can sign up for automatic notification as well through a system set up for the "press" upon submission of "credentials." The identity of what "credentials" I would submit as a blogger is a matter of polite discussion with the clerk's office. I am strongly considering printing out the post where I coined the phrase "snort my taint.")

I'll follow up as circumstances warrant. Were I a betting man, I'd bet we won't see "he uploaded a video to YouTube" as a proposed violation; any computer-related violation will be based on more extensive use. I'd also bet that in any revocation proceeding we'll see claims about use of an alias and use of financial instruments that have not been disclosed to the probation officer.

Last 5 posts by Ken White

9 Comments
Tags

9 Comments

  1. Pablo  •  Sep 19, 2012 @11:41 am

    I'm of the mind that Probation is not very interested in violating him. His "questioning" doubtlessly spent a fair amount of time on where he'd be living going forward, and it seems as though it was designed more to get him out of his house without the media on his tail than anything else, especially given that he left the Sheriff's station on his own 90 minutes after arriving there. Check these two posts by a local Patch reporter, one of which includes video of the "perp walk". It looks more like a hostage extraction in the full context. And, they went back and "perp walked" the rest of his family 2 days later, only to reunite them with Nakoula and send them on their way.

    http://cerritos.patch.com/articles/video-nakoula-escape-where-is-sam-bacile-nakoula-basseley-cerritos-sheriff-s-deputies-escort-embattled-anti-islam-filmmaker-out-of-home-saturday#video-11366279

    http://cerritos.patch.com/articles/nakoula-basseley-nakoula-family-leaves-cerritos-home-monday-with-plans-never-to-return

  2. Ken  •  Sep 19, 2012 @11:48 am

    Pablo: Could be. But again: if you're a defendant with a $700,000 restitution judgment against you, and the probation officer finds out you've been conducting financial transactions under an alias, you're usually going to get violated.

  3. James Pollock  •  Sep 19, 2012 @1:36 pm

    "you're usually going to get violated."

    Interesting that this is a synonym for "be sent back to prison".

  4. Sass  •  Sep 19, 2012 @2:31 pm

    Press credentials consist of a piece of paper from an organization that essentially say "this person works for us" or from an accreditation group which consists of people vouching for each other. Whatever.

    You need a piece of paper? My family owns a printing business. We can even laminate it for you or engrave it on crystal.

  5. Ken  •  Sep 19, 2012 @2:54 pm

    @Sass: does this crystal have healing and/or smiting powers?

  6. C. S. P. Schofield  •  Sep 19, 2012 @3:43 pm

    Ken,

    "does this crystal have healing and/or smiting powers?"

    I think we can deduce from their baseline behavior that most major media outlets think it does.

  7. Pablo  •  Sep 19, 2012 @5:32 pm

    Yeah, you'd think so, Ken. But I notice that it didn't happen. Maybe after the election…

  8. Sass  •  Sep 19, 2012 @7:27 pm

    Ken,
    Healing costs extra; smiting power comes included and is effective in direct correlation to the user's pitching abilities.

  9. TimS  •  Sep 20, 2012 @6:03 am

    So, hypothetically, let's assume Nakoula has violated supervised release. And this violation would normally lead to a relatively brief prison term.

    Should we First Amendment quasi-absolutists object if Nakoula is maxed out for "harming American interests abroad" in the course of the violation? Just to make the question harder, let's assume that terms of supervised release imposed in this case are generally acceptable under the First Amendment.