Legal Commentary

Cameron Douglas Jailed Following House Arrest Smuggling Incident

By Jeralyn

How did Cameron Douglas, charged with trafficking in multi-pound quantities of crystal meth, carrying penalties of 10 years to life, get released on a bond the conditions of which were home detention at his mother's New York apartment where he would be watched by a private security guard company?

It may not matter now. He's been transferred to the Metropolitan Correction Center for violating the terms of his bond.

His girlfriend, Kelly Sott, brought Cameron an electric toothbrush filled with heroin to his mother's apartment. Cameron had requested the toothbrush.

Sott is now charged with multiple offenses and has been ordered detained without bond. She has a court-appointed lawyer. The judge also ordered medical treatment for her as her lawyer advised she's a heroin user. The complaint against Sott is here (pdf). [More...]

And what's up with the court's PACER docket? There's no entry for Cameron Douglas even having a bond revocation hearing, and for Kelly Sott, none of the documents are hyperlinked for PACER users. Nor is there any indication the documents have been sealed.

I complained last week about the lack of access to documents regarding Douglas.

What's odd is that Douglas seems to have disappeared. There's no entry on the docket for a bond hearing or court appearance. Three lawyers have entered their appearance for him. Neither the lawyers nor the feds will comment.

According to Reuters, he appeared in court the day after his arrest. But no further court hearing was set. Even when proceedings are sealed, there's a notation on the docket to a sealed document.

Did he get special treatment by being allowed to enter a private residential drug treatment program after his arrest but before charges were filed against him? It seems to me the Government would seek pre-trial detention for anyone else charged with these offenses.

Maybe they are cleaning Douglas up or protecting him so he can help the DEA bust his suppliers to get out from under the mandatory minimum sentence.

Now it turns out he was granted a bond with home detention but there's no mention of it on the court docket sheet. Somehow the gossip sites are getting the documents but why isn't the docket being updated in a timely fashion and why aren't the documents available to anyone else?

Full post as published by TalkLeft on August 12, 2009 (boomark / email).