A.G. Gancarski
Though House District 13 Rep. Reggie Fullwood was successful in getting a continuance of his Federal trial to August, the Jacksonville Democrat’s motion for a bill of particulars from federal prosecutors “mystified” them, as a six-page letter of opposition to the motion revealed this week.
“The Defendant is not entitled to a bill of particulars. The indictment is reasonably specific, tracks the language of the wire fraud statute, and adequately informs the Defendant of the charges pending against him,” wrote Middle District of Florida U.S. Attorney Lee Bentley on Thursday.
“Generalized discovery is not a proper purpose in seeking a bill of particulars,” Bentley wrote, seemingly responding to Fullwood’s claim that a delay in trial was required for a “voluminous discovery” process.
“Where the indictment is reasonably specific, there is no need for a bill of particulars. Where it tracks the language of the statutes involved and adequately informs the defendant of the charges pending against him, there is no need for a bill of particulars,” Bentley continues, before contending that the indictment offers sufficient detail.
“The indictment not only charges the offenses in the language of the mail fraud statute, but includes significant additional factual allegations which assist the Defendant in identifying the charges against him,” Bentley writes.
The archest paragraph from Bentley is the one on Fullwood’s “alleged confusion.”
“In his motion,” Bentley writes, “the Defendant contends that it is “unclear from whom or what the funds were ‘embezzled’ … the Defendant states ‘[i]t is that single additional bit of factual information that the Defendant seeks by this Motion.”
The prosecution “is honestly mystified by the Defendant’s confusion [given that] paragraph #5 clearly states ‘that Fullwood would submit or cause to be submitted false and fraudulent campaign expenditure reports to the State of Florida which included inflated and/or non-existent campaign expenses in order to hide and conceal the fact that Fullwood had fraudulently and unlawfully embezzled funds from the Reggie Fullwood Campaign Account with Atlantic Coast Bank…’”
Though Fullwood has told FloridaPolitics.com he intends to run for re-election this year, local Democrats strongly speculate that his legal troubles will compel him to rethink his plans.
