Judge rejects David Drumm’s latest appeal for bail

Former Anglo Irish Bank chief executive David Drumm will remain in custody in Massachusetts after a US judge rejected his petition seeking to overturn a ruling denying him bail last month.

US District Judge Richard Stearns dismissed the 49-year-old former banker's request for release on bail pending the hearing of his extradition case which is scheduled to take place on March 1st.

Judge Stearns found that “no reversible error” had been made by a lower court judge in rejecting Mr Drumm’s application for bail.

Three days after hearing arguments from his lawyers for his release, the Boston judge rejected Mr Drumm's view that the possibility of being granted bail in Ireland pending a criminal trial on 33 charges constituted a special circumstance warranting his release on bail.

"Foreign bail practices should have no role in shaping the discharge by a United States court of its limited duties in adjudicating an extradition demand," said Judge Stearns in a 16-page ruling made on Monday evening.

Special circumstance

He dismissed Mr Drumm’s view that the alleged seven-year delay in the Irish authorities seeking his extradition back to Ireland amounted to another special circumstance meriting his release from custody.

If the delay impinged on the due process rights of Mr Drumm, to the extent they are recognised by the Irish State, these are matters for the courts of Ireland to resolve, said the American judge.

Judge Stearns said that Massachusetts Magistrate Judge Donald Cabell, who first denied Mr Drumm bail on December 15th, reasoned that because the March 1st hearing is "not a full-blown adversarial trial, there is no reason to believe that it will not be concluded expeditiously."

He said that should this not be the case and if there is delay by the government, then Mr Drumm is open to renew his request for bail.

“Delay attributable to the US authorities in prosecuting an extradition demand could constitute a special circumstance justifying bail,” he said.

The appeals judge also rejected Mr Drumm’s third argument: that the “utter dependency” of his wife and two daughters on his ability to function as the family breadwinner was also a special circumstance.

This was “dismissed by the Magistrate Judge, not callously, but with the accurate observation that this circumstance is not special, but rather one that applies to most incarcerated defendants,” he said.

‘Inhumane’ conditions

Mr Drumm also argued that he was being held in “intolerable and inhumane” conditions of confinement that have hindered his ability to confer with his lawyers and subjected him to “safely risks.”

Judge Stearns said that he was “not certain” that the safety concerns raised by Mr Drumm had been resolved.

He remanded this aspect of his petition to the Magistrate Judge to make orders consistent with the jail’s security to allow Mr Drumm work with his lawyers in preparing for the March 1st hearing.

The Dubliner was arrested at his home near Boston in October on an extradition request from the Irish State over charges relating to transactions at Anglo in 2008 while he ran the bank as chief executive.

He is being held at the maximum-security Plymouth County Correctional Facility, about 70km south of Boston.

Mr Drumm’s lawyers had argued before Judge Stearns in court on Friday that his conditions of incarceration were designed to make his custody “so harsh and indifferent, so cruel and intolerable” that he might waive his right to fight extradition and return to Ireland.