David Drumm faces ‘ongoing threats to his safety’

Lawyers for David Drumm say the incarcerated former Anglo Irish Bank chief executive faces "ongoing threats to his safety" in the maximum-security Massachusetts prison in which he is being held.

Mr Drumm has been “forced to endure” what they describe as a “hostile and retaliatory environment” that is “not simply a matter of the discomfitures of prison”, they state.

The claim appears in his 31-page petition against his detention, filed on Christmas Eve, although the details of the threats to his safety are confined to sealed documents.

The petition states that Mr Drumm’s 80-year-old mother attempted to visit her son on Christmas Eve but that prison officials denied her “humanitarian request” to see him. “The facility’s conduct and denial of Mr Drumm’s Christmas Eve request is at best harsh and indifferent,” his lawyers say.

The 49-year-old last week petitioned the Massachusetts District Court for a writ of habeas corpus, a move that means he is effectively appealing an earlier decision by US Magistrate Judge Donald Cabell to deny him bail. A hearing on this application has been set for January 8th.

Mr Drumm spent Christmas in Plymouth County Correctional Facility. The Dubliner has been in custody since his arrest by US Marshals on October 10th at his home outside Boston on an extradition request from the State.

Since this time, “a series of highly unusual past and ongoing incidents have created a legitimate risk to Mr Drumm’s safety as an inmate of the various facilities”, his lawyers state.

“As a result of those risks, Mr Drumm has been held under solitary confinement and transferred, with no notice, to four different facilities in two states and multiple times within various units of such facilities.”

These “interruptions” have “substantially interfered” with his ability to confer with his lawyers and have also “subjected him to a hostile atmosphere of harassment, coercion, potential retaliation and threats to his safety,” they write.

Leaked information

The lawyers – Michael Miguel, Edward McNally and Daniel Fetterman of the law firm Kasowitz, Benson, Torres & Friedman – also note that senior officials at various facilities leaked information such as Mr Drumm's inmate number and his location to the press.

“Given the ongoing investigations, Mr Drumm is today even more vulnerable to potential retaliation, coercion or harassment by prison staff.”

Mr Drumm is wanted in Ireland to face 33 criminal charges relating to transactions carried out while he ran Anglo Irish Bank. An extradition hearing is scheduled for early March 2016.

The petition contends that the law and the facts of the case “overwhelmingly favour” his release on bail pending these proceedings.

The court was wrong to conclude that “the complete and utter dependency on Mr Drumm of his wife and two daughters” was not a special circumstance that warranted his release, his lawyers say.

His continued detention “will result in utter financial devastation to three other innocent persons”, they write, adding that this is “avoidable” as Mr Drumm’s employer has “made clear that he can continue to earn a viable living while under sustained house arrest”.

The petition claims the Irish government’s seven-year delay in seeking Mr Drumm’s extradition is also a special circumstance that “weighs decisively in favour” of his release on bail.