After a three-and-a-half year wait and two denied motions to dismiss on speedy trial grounds, Aleksandr Pikus was convicted by a jury in a Medicaid fraud conspiracy.
Finding that both of his previous motions to dismiss should have been granted, the Second Circuit reversed Pikus’s convictions and vacated his sentence. The Court concluded that the delay in the case was extraordinary, and, on several occasions, the district court erroneously excluded time from the speedy trial calculations merely because the case was “complex” without any further explanation, which is insufficient under the statute. The trial court thus failed in its responsibility to appropriately consider the causes and implications of the extraordinary delays caused by the Government’s conduct.
Appeal from the Eastern District of New York
Opinion by Rakoff (by designation from the Southern District of New York), joined by Park and Robinson
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