United States v. Zedner, No. 07-1049 (2d Cir. October 28, 2008) (Kearse, Pooler, CJJ, Cote, DJ)
While on supervised release, and with his appeal pending, Jacob Zedner received his probation officer’s permission to go to Israel for two weeks to attend his brother’s funeral. While there, he was arrested and was told to remain in the country. Citing this and a lack of funds, Zedner did not return to the United States. The government then moved to dismiss the appeal; a sharply divided panel invoked the fugitive disentitlement doctrine and dismissed the case with prejudice.
Background
Zedner’s was surely the longest-running criminal case in this circuit. The offense involved his trying to negotiate multi-million dollar “bonds” that were riddled with misspellings and that were purportedly issued by the “Ministry of Finance of U.S.A.” The case itself began in 1996, when he was indicted for attempted bank fraud. After prolonged competency …