A New York City man who pleaded guilty to bank fraud in April had his sentencing hearing derailed Friday after he told U.S. District Judge Kristine G. Baker that he wanted a new attorney before sentencing.
Patrick Cooper, 57, entered his guilty plea before Baker on April 27, admitting that he and his co-defendant, Jodaine Kamawu James, 25, of Brooklyn, N.Y., conspired together to steal money from bank branches by impersonating account holders.
Cooper was accused, along with James, of visiting several Bank of America sites on Jan. 15, 2019, and withdrawing money from accounts while posing as the account owners. Court records indicated that Cooper and James visited six branches, withdrawing $11,000 from two of them before their arrests.
At Friday’s hearing, both Cooper and his attorney, Cara Boyd Connors of Little Rock, who was appointed by the court to represent Cooper, told Baker that the attorney-client relationship was irretrievably broken. Baker said at the outset of the hearing that she was holding a status conference because of a letter she received from Cooper regarding Connors’ representation, which he said was ineffective.
Cooper complained that Connors had done nothing to alleviate his complaints about his detention, saying that he was sleep deprived due to having to sleep on a plastic mattress with no sheet. That was the same complaint that nearly derailed his plea hearing four months ago. At that time, Connors told Baker that, although Cooper agreed with the charge against him, his primary motivation for entering the plea was to get out of the Greene County jail.
On Friday, although it was unclear if Cooper is still housed in the Greene County jail (his name did not appear on the online jail roster), his complaint was still much the same regarding the conditions and lack of sleep, but he said he did not want his dissatisfaction with Connors’ representation to delay his sentencing.
According to court records, James pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit bank fraud last December and was sentenced May 27 to 21 months in federal prison, five years supervised release and ordered to pay $30,000 in restitution.
Baker told Cooper that much of the sentencing delay had to do with his own objections to his pre-sentencing report prepared by the U.S. Probation Office.
“The version of the pre-sentence report I have has approximately… 13 objections raised on your behalf to it,” Baker said, counting them out. “That doesn’t indicate to me ineffective assistance of counsel but you said that word in your letter, that phrase, so we’re here today to talk about it . ” As the hearing wore on, Cooper grew more agitated, , asking to be allowed to represent himself and alternately asking for a competency hearing or declaring himself to be fully competent.
“Is there something wrong with me for wanting to get out of that?” he said, excitedly. “Am I wrong? Am I crazy? What am I supposed to do? I can’t get into court and my lawyer isn’t doing anything about it.” “That’s not her role,” Baker said, as she and Cooper began to talk over one another loudly as his federal marshal escorts moved to position themselves within a foot of Cooper.
“Today,” Baker finally told Cooper, “the decision is that I’m going to grant you a new lawyer. … Ms. Connors is no longer your attorney.” Baker said once Cooper’s new counsel has been appointed and had the chance to go over his case, she will set a new sentencing date.
“How long is that?” Cooper demanded. “Is it going to take another six months?” “Sometimes there are problems you just have to live with,” Baker said. “With all due respect, my job is not to solve all of your problems. … A lot of the delay in the proceedings has been you fighting the proceedings.”