Ciccolo Judge OKs Prosecutor's Request for DelayBy Stephen Dravis, iBerkshires Staff
03:57PM / Wednesday, March 23, 2016 | |
SPRINGFIELD, Mass. — It could be up to two more months before the U.S. Attorney's Office is ready to file additional charges against an Adams man suspected of sympathizing with the so-called Islamic State in Syria, or ISIS.
Federal Magistrate Judge Katherine A. Robertson has granted a request from the government to continue a status hearing in the case of the United States vs. Alexander Ciccolo scheduled for Wednesday afternoon.
Last week, U.S. Attorney Carmen Ortiz filed a motion asking for the delay citing "multiple levels of review both locally in the United States Attorney's Office in Massachusetts and at additional levels within the Department of Justice."
The government's motion also stated that Ciccolo's counsel assented to the request to exclude the next 60 days from the federal Speedy Trial Act clock.
Ciccolo was arrested on July 4, 2015, and has to date only been charged with count of weapons possession and an alleged assault on a prison nurse. He has pleaded innocent to both charges.
But the government filed a lengthy report in support of its request to withhold bail that paints the picture of a potential domestic terrorist with ISIS sympathies and aspirations to commit mass murder.
At subsequent hearings, the government has asked for more time as it develops its case, and Robertson has granted the requests. In February, Assistant U.S. Attorney Kevin O'Regan told Robertson he was "pretty confident" the government would be ready to move forward on March 23.
As of Tuesday afternoon, a 2:30 hearing date was on the docket in Robertson's courtroom.
The government's March 18 motion seeking an extension notes that it has provided Ciccolo's attorney, David Hoose of Northampton, with "over 1,000 pages of discovery, including disks of
hard drive images from three computers."
The government argued that by sharing the evidence with the defense team, pretrial progress continues to be made, even though no "superseding charges" have been filed.
United States vs. Ciccolo
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