Former premier Andrew Fahie has launched an appeal of his United States conviction on drug-conspiracy charges, but the Florida appeal lawyer who previously represented him is withdrawing from the case because Mr. Fahie can’t afford to pay him, according to court records.
Nevertheless, Mr. Fahie won’t go unrepresented during his appeal: On Friday, US District Court Judge Kathleen Williams appointed Miami-based attorney Benedict Kuehne to represent him at public expense.
Richard Della Fera, who represented Mr. Fahie at his August sentencing, originally planned to handle the former premier’s appeal, but he wrote last Thursday in a court filing that “due to unforeseen circumstances” Mr. Fahie is “without the means to make full payment to counsel to handle the appeal.”
He added, “As defendant is unable to afford to pay for an appellate attorney, it is requested that the court appoint him appellate counsel.”
Defence attorney Theresa Van Vliet, who represented Mr. Fahie during his eight-day trial in February, also asked Ms. Williams for permission to withdraw from the case, noting that Mr. Fahie had retained her only through his sentencing and not for his appeal.
New lawyer
In a Friday letter to Mr. Kuehne, Ms. Williams wrote that his appointment was made “pursuant to the Criminal Justice Act,” a law that allows private attorneys to be appointed and paid by the government to represent defendants accused of felonies.
Mr. Kuehne began his career as an attorney in 1979, and his website claims that he earned the nickname “Iron Lawyer,” both for his participation in Ironman triathlons and for his “accomplishments in complex, protracted trials and appeals.”
Despite Mr. Kuehne’s Friday appointment, the appeal was initiated a day earlier by Mr. Della Fera: In what was likely his last act as Mr. Fahie’s counsel, he filed a formal Notice of Appeal with the eleventh circuit court last Thursday. That notice initiated the appeal process, which can take years, but it provided no details as to the grounds of appeal.
Mr. Della Ferra, however, previously said during an interview on “Da Morning Braff” show on Tola Radio that he had identified three potential groups of “errors” made by Ms. Williams during the February trial.
Those include pre-trial motions involving the background of a Drug Enforcement Administration informant who used the name “Roberto Quintero;” evidence that Ms. Williams did not allow to be shown to the jury; and concerns that the jury was not unanimous in its verdict, the lawyer said.
Conviction
Mr. Fahie, a long-time First District representative, served as premier from 2019 until the House of Assembly voted on May 5, 2022, to remove him from the office. That vote followed Mr. Fahie’s April 28, 2022, arrest in Miami after an elaborate sting operation carried out by the US DEA.
In February, Mr. Fahie was convicted of four charges: conspiracy to import more than five kilograms of cocaine into the US, conspiracy to engage in money laundering, attempted money laundering, and foreign travel in aid of racketeering.
He could have received a life sentence, but Ms. Williams opted to impose a term of 11 years and three months — just over the 10-year minimum required by law.
Mr. Fahie’s co-conspirators — former BVI Ports Authority Managing Director Oleanvine Maynard and her son Kadeem Maynard — received lighter sentences of nine years and four months and four years and nine months, respectively, after pleading guilty.
Mr. Fahie, who has maintained his innocence, is currently serving his sentence at Tallahassee Federal Correctional Institution, a low-security prison located a seven-hour drive north of Miami, according to US Bureau of Prison records.
His release date is listed as July 24, 2033.
Allegations
As part of the DEA sting, undercover operatives posed as members of Mexico’s Sinaloa Cartel, asking Mr. Fahie and the Maynards to help facilitate the “free passage” of cocaine through VI waters on the way to Puerto Rico, according to prosecutors.
During Mr. Fahie’s trial, jurors heard clandestine recordings of Mr. Quintero explaining that the cartel’s cocaine would be concealed as waterproof construction materials.
In exchange for assisting the smuggling, Mr. Fahie expected to receive an initial $500,000 in cash and a cut of the proceeds from future drug sales, prosecutors said during his trial.
However, Ms. Van Vliet stressed that no drugs or money changed hands, though fake currency was shown to the former premier on a plane parked at the Miami-Opa Locka Executive Airport shortly before his arrest.
At trial, she repeatedly questioned the narrative that Mr. Fahie was engaging in illegal activity, arguing instead that he had an “earnestly held belief” that the United Kingdom government had sent an operative as part of an attempt to remove him from office.