Woman convicted of stealing diary of Biden's daughter misses NYC sentencing again

[BumRushDaShow]

Source: NY Daily News

PUBLISHED: March 27, 2024 at 6:08 p.m. | UPDATED: March 27, 2024 at 6:34 p.m.


A Florida woman convicted of stealing President Biden’s daughter’s diary from a Delray Beach rental to sell to far-right group Project Veritas was a no-show at her sentencing for the second time on Wednesday. An attorney for Aimee Harris, 41, convinced Manhattan federal court Judge Laura Swain to give his client “one more, final time” to appear in court before sending a team of U.S. Marshals to get her.

“If she doesn’t show … then I don’t think there would be any basis to avoid a bench warrant at that point,” defense lawyer Anthony Cecutti said, later adding that his client was “struggling to keep her life afloat.” Swain said if Harris hadn’t turned over outstanding financial documents to the probation department by noon Friday, she’d issue a bench warrant. If she abides by the deadline, the judge said she’d set a new sentencing date in early April.

Prosecutors had argued for an immediate warrant, telling the judge there was no reason to believe Harris would ever appear after skipping her last court date in January.

Harris pleaded guilty to conspiring to transport stolen property in August 2022 along with a coconspirator, Robert Kurlander. She admitted that in September 2020, she stole Ashley Biden’s handwritten journal, which contained highly personal entries, private family photos, and tax information from a Delray Beach home where the then-presidential candidate’s daughter left luggage behind.

Read more: https://www.nydailynews.com/2024/03/27/woman-convicted-of-stealing-diary-of-bidens-daughter-misses-nyc-sentencing-again/

[Mawspam2]

1. Send the Marshalls to go get her and drag her ass to Court.

[Rebl2]

14. Agreed!

[multigraincracker]

2. I served on a jury where the

defendant didn’t show. Judge told his lawyer that he would be at the next trial as he will be arrested and stay in jail until the next hearing.

[bucolic_frolic]

3. Surely on the Pardon by Orange list

[moniss]

4. So apparently with this judge

if you are an out of state thief you get to not show up to court 3 times before the bench warrant happens. I'm willing to bet few if any others got that same slack.

[onenote]

6. Actually, you would be surprised. It is not rare for judges to set new court dates when the defendant misses

the scheduling hearing.

In fact, more than half of the states have provisions in their statutes or court rules providing for judges to consider circumstances for the failure to appear and to allow people to defend their absences.

In this situation, the defendant, Harris, appeared at the hearing remotely on video to explain her absence. She is only facing, at most, six months of house arrest so its likely that fact, along with the fact that she lives in Florida and is a single mom, influenced the judge to be patient, at least up to a point. The judge, by the way, is Laura Swain, an appointee of Bill Clinton and only the second Black woman to serve as the Chief Judge of the Southern District of New York.

[moniss]

11. I can see missing

one and explaining it and rescheduling. But 3 strikes is excessive.

[BlueKota]

12. I don't begrudge an allowance for the first no show,

especially since she did the video appearance, but the second no show at all shouldn't have been excused in my opinion.

Also if she stole groceries to feed her kids, I'd have sympathy, or harmed someone defending herself, her kids, or someone else from imminent harm, I'd understand.

What she did there isn't an excuse for. The diary wasn't hers. The President's Daughter wasn't presenting any threat to the convict, or her children, in fact did nothing to deserve her private and very personal property being stolen. Her father is President, she is a private citizen.

So I am not sorry I have issues with the judge giving her yet another break. She had a trial, where her attorney had a chance to challenge the evidence against her, she already was given one pass on not showing up. So my question is when will the allowances stop, and the consequences which she brought upon herself begin?

By the way it doesn't matter, who appointed the judge, Democrat or Republican. I object to people who chose to break the law, had a chance to mount a defense, but was found guilty, then breaks yet another law not once but twice, being given the benefit of the doubt yet again.

She's already shown she's just going to keep offering excuses why she doesn't have to accept the consequences of her own actions. The bench warrant should have been issued for this second no show. If her sentence isn't even that burdensome to begin with then there is even less reason for her to keep delaying serving it.

As far as her children what kind of example is she setting by showing them it's okay to break the law, and not be willing to accept the consequences after you've been found guilty?

[Irish_Dem]

5. The judges coddle Trump and his flying monkeys.

Over and over again.

Disgraceful.

[BlueKota]

8. They don't want to appear bias against them

so they give break after break, not caring that's a form of bias in itself. So are we all allowed now to just not show up to court twice when we're required to, and not immediately have a bench warrant against us because of excuses? Here's an idea if you're a single Mom who wants to be there for your child or children either don't break the law to begin with or at least show your children you have the decency to accept the consequences when you are guilty, instead of thumbing your nose at the law.

If the consequences for breaking the law, are so easily dismissed why bother having them to begin with?

[Irish_Dem]

9. Yes. They try so hard to be fair that they are blatantly UNFAIR.

Unfair to the rest of us who do not get coddled in court.

[Ray Bruns]

7. Fucking bullshit

https://makeagif.com/i/tpy8GR

[Swede]

10. Why do these folks always get four strikes and your not out?

Its frustrating this happens over and over with the rightwing crowd.

[Prairie Gates]

13. The fact that there wasn't a bench warrant issued immediately, the first time

YEESH!

[kimbutgar]

15. ID has a show called Bail jumpers where they send bail bondsmen to apprehend people who don't show up in court

I’d love to see her taken in on the TV show

[MuseRider]

16. I'm still stuck on the fact that she found

someone else's luggage in a rental. If she knew it was Ashley Biden's baggage then she did not just inform the rental people, she opened and went through someone else's luggage #1 then decided to keep part of it once she knew who it belonged to #2. There has to be something wrong with all that before the rest of this story. A simple call to the renters would have them pick it up and call whoever had been staying there and none of this would have happened. So now, she does not show up and gets another chance and has been found to have gone through the luggage and taken things that are not hers and we are waiting for this idiot to find her way to the court room? This happened in 2020?

I would have been begging the police to come and get the bags and told them myself that I had looked inside and gone through personal belongings of someone else. Actually I never would have had to do that because luggage that does not belong to me in NONE OF MY FREAKING business.

And we are just now letting this idiot not show for court with the typical, these days anyway, "Oh well".

I am now an older lady (better than just old right?) and maybe this is just the change in society but it seems to me nobody is ever going to not do this if we just wave ALL of that away.

There was never one single reason for her to open those bags, or that bag. What are the chances this gets a shrug and maybe a small fine. And society gets harder to deal with.

[displacedtexan]

17. So nobody cleaned the room?

I have a few short term rentals, and most states have had very strict rules on cleaning between visits,
especially since Covid. The cleaner(s) would've found anything left behind, and the owner(s) would've contacted the previous renters.

[Emile]

18. Put her in jail until her next sentencing hearing.

Egads, fucking Republicans are weak on crime.