U.S. fined in case against ex-student

Setting a national legal precedent, the government, in its federal drug case against former Wharton student Alexander Moskovits, was fined legal fees for filing a frivolous appeal, U.S. attorneys conceded in a brief earlier this month. Government officials revealed in December that they had never received Justice Department approval to file an appeal which was responsible for holding up Moskovits' new trial for months. As a result of this revelation, the U.S. Third Circuit Court of Appeals concluded that the government's appeal was frivolous and assessed $2,400 in fees against the government. The fees are meant to compensate Moskovits for cost incurred in fighting the appeal. In 1988, Moskovits, then a Wharton senior, was convicted on 18 federal drug counts for trafficking 50 kilograms of cocaine. After serving six years in prison while still proclaiming his innocence, Moskovits won a new trial last summer and was released on $300,000 bail bond in late November. In a brief asking the Court of Appeals for a panel rehearing on their decision to assess costs against the government, the U.S. attorneys acknowledged the precedent setting nature of the court's decision. "The government is aware of no decision, reported or unpublished, in this Circuit or any other where damages have been awarded against it in a criminal case under Rule 38," the government brief states. Rule 38 is a federal law providing that "if a court of appeals shall determine that an appeal is frivolous, it may award just damages and single or double costs to the appellee." On February 16, the Third Circuit "summarily dismissed" the U.S. Attorneys request for a panel rehearing, and in doing so ordered the government to pay Moskovits the fees. "This is the first case ever where the government had been sanctioned in a criminal case for frivolity," Moskovits said last week in a telephone interview from Miami, where he is currently under house arrest awaiting a retrial. Moskovits added that the Bureau of National Affairs, a national legal publication, has contacted him about the case because of its precedent setting nature. Assistant U.S. Attorney Kristin Hayes could not be reached for comment yesterday, but refused to comment extensively on the case earlier this month, referring all questions to the documents the government had recently filed with the court. Moskovits' attorneys have filed a motion arguing that their client should go free on the grounds that the government's "frivolous" appeal violated Moskovits' right to a speedy trial. In June, U.S. District Court Judge Louis Pollak overturned Moskovits conviction on 18 federal drug charges and granted him a new trial on procedural grounds. That trial was to take place within 70 days, but the government's appeal held up the trial for months. It is now tentatively scheduled to begin on April 12. U.S. attorneys have filed a brief arguing that Moskovits' grounds for dismissing the case against him are "meritless." The government claims that their appeal was not in bad faith and stopped the clock on the 70-day rule. They state that only 64 includable days have elapsed since Pollak ordered a new trial this past summer , and thus that Moskovits' right to a speedy trial has not been violated. They cite other cases in which courts ruled that delays of 15 months and longer were not violations of a defendants speedy trial rights. Pollak must rule on this issue before Moskovits' trial begins in April. Moskovits said last week that if the case goes to trial again, he will represent himself. He is currently under house arrest in Miami where he is wearing an electronic monitoring device and reporting to the court in Miami on a daily basis. While awaiting a final decision in his case, Moskovits is working toward completion of his Wharton degree through an independent study project on judicial ethics with Criminology Professor Marvin Wolfgang.