JUDGE ORDERS CHANGES TO ACCOMODATE HIGH-PROFILE INMATES AT MIAMI'S
FEDERAL DETENTION CENTER

Defendants, Attorneys In Terror Cases Need Better Meeting Spaces, She Says

A Federal judge ordered officials Friday to make changes that will
allow four high-profile criminal suspects simultaneously preparing
for trial inside Miami's Federal Detention Center to meet more easily
with their attorneys.

District Judge Marcia Cooke who presides over the prosecution of
accused terrorists Jose Padilla and Adham Amin Hassoun said the
prison had not done enough to accommodate defendants and their counsel.

"It is ludicrous to think this case can be prepared for trial like
some others," Cooke said. "The present system is not workable."

Padilla and Hassoun are being held in the center's maximum-security
unit, along with alleged Colombian cocaine kingpins Miguel and
Gilberto Rodriguez Orejuela. Trials in both cases are scheduled to
begin in September and last for several months.

Currently, there is only one conference room where prisoners in the
maximum-security unit can meet with lawyers, and defense attorneys in
the cases have complained that they are forced to jockey with other
legal teams over the limited meeting space.

Cooke ordered center officials to provide a second conference room
for attorney-client meetings by March 10. She also ruled that Hassoun
be permitted to meet with his lawyers in rooms available to the
general prison population on Wednesdays, a day when the prison is
closed to personal visitors.

Cooke noted that the conspiracy case against Padilla and Hassoun
involves thousands of pages of documents and would require more
preparation than a run-of-the-mill criminal case.

Defense lawyers greeted the seemingly minor concessions with a
mixture of gratitude and frustration.

"We're not asking for a trip to the movies, we're just asking for
what everyone else receives," said Kenneth Swartz, Hassoun's lawyer.

Swartz told Cooke that prison officials make improvements only when
they are facing a possible judicial rebuke.

"Just when we get to the courthouse door they say, 'Guess what, we
have a nice little surprise for you,'" Swartz said. "They don't want
to face the fact there are some real due process concerns here."

Prosecutor Brian Frazier said prison officials are doing their best
to accommodate a large number of inmates.

Friday's hearing came several weeks after District Judge Federico
Moreno called prison policies regarding attorney-client meetings
"asinine" and "stupid" at a hearing in the Rodriguez Orejuela case.

At the time, inmates in the maximum-security unit could meet with
lawyers in the conference room only when their group included four
individuals. Otherwise, they were forced to confer with attorneys in
small rooms divided by a glass partition.

Both Moreno and Cooke have said they do not want to interfere in
prison operations, but that restrictions on attorney-client contacts
interfere with the right of a defendant to receive a fair trial.

Attorney Roy Kahn, who represents Miguel Rodriguez Orejuela, learned
of the plans for a new conference room after Friday's hearing. He
said that combined pressure from the two sets of defendants and their
lawyers is forcing judges to address problems in the Federal Detention Center.

At Friday's hearing, lawyers for Hassoun raised concerns that prison
guards had stolen documents from Hassoun's cell during a search.
Frazier denied the charge.

Cooke said she would issue an order that guards keep a log of any
written papers removed from Hassoun's cell in the future.