Regardless of ‘clear invoice of well being,’ ‘Fats Leonard’ stayed out of jail

In late 2020, Leonard Francis was given a “clear invoice of well being” by a health care provider who had been treating the infamous Malaysian protection contractor for greater than two years, below an uncommon medical furlough that had stored him out of jail to obtain remedy.

Regardless of that pronouncement in November 2020, Francis — the mastermind of an enormous corruption scandal that rocked the U.S. Navy and defrauded taxpayers out of tens of millions of {dollars} — continued to keep away from federal lock-up, residing at occasions palatially below home arrest together with his personal paid safety till Sept. 4.

That’s when the 6-foot, 2-inch Francis, nicknamed “Fats Leonard” for his greater than 300-pound girth, sliced off a GPS ankle bracelet he had worn since 2018, and went on the run.

Two weeks after the beautiful escape, the whereabouts of Francis stay unknown. Federal authorities consider he slipped throughout the U.S.-Mexico border and have supplied a $40,000 reward for his arrest.

Now, the historical past of his uncommon medical furlough has turn out to be extra pressing, not solely in mild of his escape, but in addition within the aftermath of a trial of 4 Navy officers lately convicted of accepting bribes.

Legal professionals for the 4, who had been convicted at a trial that led to June, filed a movement Friday demanding all details about his medical launch. That they had sought it for years earlier than trial however had been repeatedly rebuffed. They lastly acquired redacted paperwork simply weeks earlier than trial.

The legal professionals contend the lead prosecutor on the case, Assistant U.S. Lawyer Mark Pletcher, continued to assist conserving Francis exterior the jail partitions for years — though Francis was a rich man with worldwide ties and motivation to flee. He had pleaded responsible in 2015 to bribery and different costs.

Leonard Francis, a.ok.a. “Fats Leonard,” lived in a rented mansion, heart, in San Diego earlier than he slipped off his GPS ankle bracelet and vanished Sept. 4.

(John Gastaldo/For the San Diego Union-Tribune)

“This can be a international nationwide with no ties to america, who has pleaded responsible to a number of felonies, who has contacts everywhere in the world,” mentioned Joseph Mancano, the lawyer for convicted former Capt. David Newland. “They usually let him stay below these circumstances?”

Particulars behind the medical furlough are related to Francis’ credibility and “the federal government’s motivation in endorsing Mr. Francis’s unorthodox furlough and the ‘quid professional quo’ scenario it created permitting Mr. Francis is abscond,” they wrote.

Since 2018, Francis had been on a medical furlough due to what seems to be a constellation of medical issues that had been past the flexibility of the pretrial detention system to deal with, in response to court docket information.

The circumstances of that launch required him to put on a GPS ankle bracelet, have a 24-hour safety workforce paid for by Francis, and observe strict limitations on his actions exterior of the personal properties he was residing in and presumably renting.

On the time of his escape Francis was residing in a multimillion-dollar house in a gated neighborhood in San Diego’s Torrey Highlands neighborhood. Federal authorities officers, from the court docket company Pretrial Providers that was in command of the association to the U.S. Lawyer’s Workplace, have all declined to reply the many questions on how Francis was capable of escape.

The letter declaring Francis’ “clear invoice of well being” to U.S. District Decide Janis Sammartino, and the way it triggered an emergency listening to referred to as by the decide, is contained in 327 pages of court docket information that had been sealed till January of this yr.

In accordance with transcripts, Francis’ lawyer Devin Burstein informed the decide the letter was a part of a billing dispute with the physician, who was Francis’ bariatric surgeon. Burstein declined to touch upon the letter when reached lately.

In an ironic twist, Francis — who had pleaded responsible to masterminding a years-long billing fraud towards the U.S. Navy to the tune of tens of tens of millions of {dollars} — had turn out to be upset when his household auditors got here to consider he was being overcharged on his personal personal medical payments. That dispute led to a falling out with the doctor, Burstein informed the decide.

The letter from the physician is one piece of a puzzle in regards to the state of Francis’ well being. There may be little doubt based mostly on the paperwork launched up to now that Francis was ailing: In some unspecified time in the future he had been recognized with renal most cancers, and the newly unsealed court docket information — with all particular medical data redacted — strongly point out that for a while beginning in 2018 he was unwell.

Leonard Francis lived on this room upon first being granted medical furlough in 2018, in response to a report by federal investigators, included in a court docket submitting. He later moved to a mansion in San Diego’s Torrey Highlands.

(U.S. District Court docket)

However different data exterior the court docket document casts his medical points in a distinct mild. In an interview recorded secretly from his house arrest someday in 2021 with podcaster Tom Wright, Francis talked about his remedy routine and total well being.

Wright requested him at one level if his most cancers was in remission. “No,” Francis responded, then added, “I’ve to take care of my medical situation as a result of that’s what retains me out. That’s why I’ve my liberty. If I’m nicely, I’m positively not going to be right here.”

Questions on Francis’ well being standing have turn out to be extra pointed up to now two weeks since his escape. For greater than 4 years it was a carefully guarded secret, mentioned solely in additional than a dozen closed-door, sealed-transcript hearings that Sammartino held.

It additionally was a problem for protection legal professionals representing the group of Navy officers who went on trial earlier this yr. Their legal professionals, who had been at nighttime about Francis’ house arrest preparations and medical points, had lengthy sought extra data.

“I assumed that he was not truthful in regards to the state of his well being,” mentioned Mancano, one of many attorneys. “I imply, one physician mentioned he was in good well being.”

The physician who wrote the letter declined to remark for this story. The transient letter was despatched on to Sammartino on Nov. 24, 2020. “This letter is to inform you that Mr. Leonard Francis has been dismissed from our observe,” it learn. “We want to congratulate him on his clear invoice of well being.”

An alarmed Sammartino referred to as a listening to eight days later. She mentioned she was involved as a result of she had informed different defendants and their legal professionals that Francis’ launch “has been a respectable medical furlough, and on the level at which it’s now not a respectable medical furlough, the court docket could take a distinct place.”

Burstein then defined that Francis and the physician had a dispute over billing. The physician had stopped treating Francis a while beforehand — he had, in actual fact, not seen him for months, the lawyer mentioned — and Francis had misplaced religion within the physician as a result of he thought he was being overbilled.

He mentioned Francis was now below the care of a brand new medical workforce. However that additionally raised a priority for Pletcher, the lead prosecutor on all of the Navy bribery scandal circumstances.

Pletcher informed the decide he discovered solely the day earlier than that Francis had a brand new medical workforce and was “dismayed” in regards to the late discover.

“If he’s having a dispute, he’s having one thing that impacts this court docket’s determination on the medical furlough, then we must be the primary individuals to know,” he mentioned.

He wished the brand new docs to offer a report on Francis’ situation, with a watch on the necessity to proceed the furlough.

“However actually what I need to know is, (do) his therapies nonetheless require this kind of medical furlough, or is that this the form of remedy from an outpatient perspective that he can get with physician’s visits to and from the ability?” Pletcher mentioned. “And perhaps with COVID-19, that’s not potential, proper?”

On the time the virus was surging once more within the county. A brand new stay-at-home order can be issued inside days of the listening to, hospitalizations for the virus had been spiking and case numbers would set every day information. State and federal jails, the place the virus might unfold rapidly, had been trying to maintain their populations low, so it’s unlikely that Francis in his still-vulnerable well being can be returned to custody.

Nonetheless, on the listening to Pletcher mentioned that Francis’ remedy had labored nicely, based mostly on the medical information.

“I don’t need my feedback to be misplaced on what I believe is an important underlying theme,” he mentioned, “which is, in studying via all of this, it seems he’s doing very nicely, and for that I’m grateful, and I believe the court docket is grateful, that each one of this has had this meant and hoped-for consequence, and I now I converse for everybody right here in that we hope for the very best for Mr. Francis in his well being situation.”

By March Sammartino had acquired reviews from new docs outlining Francis’ medical situation. The redacted transcripts shed little mild on exactly what they had been, however Burstein informed Sammartino that Francis was in line for a collection of checks and procedures within the coming weeks.

The brand new reviews, Pletcher mentioned, confirmed Francis was “doing fairly nicely” and his prognosis good. When Sammartino requested if the medical furlough was nonetheless wanted, he answered there was nonetheless “good trigger” to maintain Francis in his present residing scenario.

And that’s the place he stayed till Sept. 4 round 7:30 a.m., when he minimize the monitor and disappeared. It took authorities eight hours from the time the monitoring gadget sounded an alert to appreciate he had escaped and start the manhunt.

Francis was scheduled to be sentenced Thursday. The listening to remains to be on the calendar, although it’s unlikely he might be sentenced.

Francis’ plea deal referred to as for him to forfeit $35 million to the federal government. Whereas he paid $5 million of that a number of years in the past, he fled with out having paid out the rest. He nonetheless owes the federal government $30 million, Mancano mentioned.

How lengthy his sentence was going to be is unknown. By cooperating with the federal government Francis was anticipating a big discount within the potential 25-year sentence he might have confronted below the three crimes to which he pleaded responsible.

However that settlement is probably going void now. A clause in it says by committing almost a dozen acts, resembling not showing in court docket or committing new crimes, Francis can be in breach of the deal.

In that case, the federal government might file any costs “together with people who had been dismissed, promised to be dismissed, or not filed on account of this settlement.”

Moran writes for the San Diego Union-Tribune.