EFTA01069471.pdf

1 1 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF FLORIDA 2 Case No. 08-80736-CIV-KAM 3 JANE DOE, ) 4 ) PETITIONER, ) 5 -v- ) 6 ) UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, ) 7 ) RESPONDENT. ) West Palm Beach, Florida 8 ) March 1, 2016 1 9 10 TRANSCRIPT OF TELEPHONIC STATUS CONFERENCE 11 BEFORE THE HONORABLE KENNETH A. MARRA 12 UNITED STATES DISTRICT JUDGE 13 Appearances: 14 FOR THE PETITIONER Bradley J. ESQ. 15 Farmer Jaffe, et al., P.L. 425 N. Andrews Avenue, Suite 2 16 Fort Lauderdale, FL 33301 -and- 17 Paul G. Cassell, ESQ. 18 FOR THE RESPONDENT , AUSA United States Attorney's Office 19 500 South Australian Ave Suite 400 20 West Palm Beach, FL 33401 -and- 21 , AUSA United States Attorney's Office 22 99 Northeast 4th Street Miami, FL 33132 23 Reporter Stephen W. Franklin, RMR, CRR, CPE 24 (561)514-3768 Official Court Reporter 701 Clematis Street 25 West Palm Beach, Florida 33401 E-mail: EFTA01069471  2 1 (Call to the order of the Court.) 2 THE COURT: Good morning, everyone. 3 This is the case of Doe versus United States, Case 4 Number 08-80736-CIV-MARRA. I believe counsel have already 5 stated their appearance for the record. So thank you for 6 being available on short notice. And I'm sorry, Mr. Cassell, 7 that you had to get up so early out in Utah. I didn't mean to 8 inconvenience you. 9 MR. CASSELL: No problem at all, Your Honor. 10 THE COURT: So got a request from I believe the 11 parties to have this status conference to discuss possibly 12 sending this matter to mediation; is that correct? 13 MS. : Yes, Your Honor. 14 THE COURT: So did you want to give me a little more 15 information, Ms. 16 MS. : Sure, Your Honor. 17 Mr. Edwards and I have been talking about trying to 18 resolve the case. We want to involve the petitioner, Jane Doe 19 number 1, in the mediation, in a way, you know, in a 20 meaningful way in our discussions, and it seems that mediation 21 was the best way to do it, preferably with a magistrate judge. 22 There is one issue related to her whereabouts. 23 And Mr. Edwards, why don't you address that. 24 MR. EDWARDS: Sure. 25 EFTA01069472  1 2 And with 3 a court order, she can get a furlough for a day in Tampa. The 4 only reason that I think it's necessary that you know this is 5 that I would--- the only way that we can make this happen is 6 if the magistrate judge that we're sent to is in that 7 jurisdiction, and it's over in Tampa. 8 THE COURT: Okay. And is there any objection from 9 the Government to doing that, going over to Tampa? 10 MS. : No, Your Honor. We're happy to do 11 so. 12 THE COURT: All right. And would an order from me 13 be adequate to have the Jane Doe number 1 released from this 14 facility for that day, or do you need an order from the Court 15 that confined her or sent her to this facility? 16 MR. EDWARDS: What I understand is that if we have 17 an order from Your Honor, we can present it to the judge over 18 there, and the combination would serve our purpose. 19 THE COURT: All right. And are you together working 20 on agreeing upon a mediator from the Tampa area, or do you 21 want me to get involved in that? 22 MS. : Your Honor, I think that the parties 23 believe that a magistrate judge would be better suited than a 24 private mediator. So I don't know if you are able to request 25 assistance from the Middle District for that purpose. EFTA01069473  4 1 THE COURT: Well, I can make some inquiries. Two of 2 my law school classmates are district judges in Tampa. So I 3 might be able to make some inquiries to them and get some 4 assistance from them if you don't have any -- if no one has an 5 objection to me making those inquiries. 6 MR. EDWARDS: No, absolutely not. I think that 7 would be helpful. 8 MS. : And the Government has no objection, 9 Your Honor. 10 THE COURT: All right. So why don't I make some 11 inquiries in the Middle District and get maybe a few names 12 from my contacts over there, and then I will provide them to 13 the parties, and then you can either attempt to agree, or if 14 you need me to make a decision, I'll appoint one. 15 Does that sound reasonable? 16 MR. EDWARDS: Absolutely. 17 MS. : Absolutely, Your Honor. 18 THE COURT: Do you know what kind of a timeframe 19 you're thinking about in terms of trying to schedule this with 20 someone next week, two weeks, a month from now? What is the 21 timeframe you're looking at? 22 MR. EDWARDS: I hoping sometime in April. March is 23 very difficult to pull that off right now on our end. 24 THE COURT: So it's sufficiently down the road that 25 we -- everybody can work around a date? EFTA01069474  5 1 MS. : Yes, Your Honor. I'm sure that if a 2 date is selected in April, the parties can work out that -- 3 the logistics. 4 MR. EDWARDS: Yeah. 5 MS. : And I think the only thing that we 6 would ask from the government side is just that everything -- 7 all of our deadlines be stayed until after the mediation takes 8 place. 9 MR. EDWARDS: And we're in agreement with that. 10 THE COURT: All right. Do we need an order to that 11 effect, or can we just leave it as a -- an agreement among the 12 parties that doesn't need to be formalized? 13 MR. EDWARDS: I don't think it needs to be 14 formalized, do you, Marie? 15 MS. : I agree with Mr. Edwards. I don't 16 think we need an order, Your Honor. 17 THE COURT: All right. So let me, when I have the 18 chance -- I'm in the middle of a pretty intense trial right 19 now, so I may not have too much time in the next few days to 20 make some inquiries, but I will try in the next few days to 21 make inquiries, and as soon as I get some information that I 22 think is worth sharing with you, I'll do that. 23 Do we want -- can we do this informally through my 24 courtroom deputy contacting you, or one of my law clerks 25 contacting you and giving you the names of people, rather than EFTA01069475  6 1 putting all this on the public record? 2 MR. EDWARDS: Yes, whatever's most convenient for 3 you, that's fine. 4 MS. : Yes, that's fine with us, Judge. 5 THE COURT: So we'll number touch as soon as I've 6 got some additional information to share with you. All right? 7 MR. EDWARDS: Thank you very much, Your Honor. 8 THE COURT: So thank you for your willingness to try 9 and resolve this, and we'll be back in touch with you soon. 10 MS. : Thank you for taking the time for 11 us, Your Honor. 12 THE COURT: You're welcome. Have a good day. 13 (Proceedings concluded.) 14 * * * * * 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 EFTA01069476  7 1 * * * * * 2 Telephonic Status Conference 2 3 * * * * * 4 EXHIBITS 5 (None.) 6 * * * * * 7 CERTIFICATE 8 9 I, Stephen W. Franklin, Registered Merit Reporter, and 10 Certified Realtime Reporter, certify that the foregoing is a 11 correct transcript from the record of proceedings in the 12 above-entitled matter. 13 Dated this 31st day of MARCH, 2016. 14 15 /s/Stephen W. Franklin 16 Stephen W. Franklin, RMR, CRR 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 EFTA01069477