You said: "I see where ... they put in during the arrest (an alleged 35 agents)". Let's start there and the implication and reasonable assumptions for that situation. We should be able to safely conclude that the feds knew his address prior to the actual raid, they probably requested and received a search warrant, and wanted to 'catch' burt at home. Otherwise they would have called him to make an appointment for another buy and arrested him on the spot.
Well, yeah. We can probably assume they knew his address. After all, it is a simple matter of public record. Hell, I know his address. I verified that it can be obtained by a simple search of public records - ten minutes tops, even for someone that isn't a trained investigator.
#2 - "the resources put in before the arrest" -- that goes back to the Miami sting, they likely contacted him via localbitcoins, they likely befriended him, they likely engaged in off-color and off-topic conversation, and they likely conducted numerous transactions for varying high value amounts of money -- all ripped out of the Miami playbook.
If you read between the lines of the indictment you will that they did an investigation in addition to the sting.
One would freaking hope they'd have engaged in an investigation, before they drive in hot, with ludicrous force, against a long-time, upstanding member of the community. But how much resource is really required to do a handful of localbitcoins transactions in order to entrap an otherwise innocent person? Doodley-squat, that's how much. My heart bleeds for the level of effort they needed to expend.
#3 - "how they are treating him after arraignment" -- when I read "special housing" I did my spot homework and learned it often is/means 'the hole', solitary confinement, isolation, a watch room, or anything else that requires 'special attention'. At arraignment a common norm is for the judge to determine if the defendant will be released (recog, or bail) or not. If no bail, he goes to long term detention, if bail is set and he can pay it he likely goes back to court jail to make life easier for all involved. I didn't consider a suicide watch, or serious medical condition earlier but those would be reasonable reasons for the "special housing". Nevertheless, I presumed bail was set unfairly high.
What makes you think the fed detention was after arraignment? I mean, it could be. But a three-day (or whatever) stay in fed hell rather than back to county for release processing seems kinda weird, no?
I can blue-sky a number of other scenarios where 'special housing' (such a benign euphemism, that) might be deemed logical - but I'm trying to avoid openly speculating in this thread. (That may change, but I'll be damned sure to clearly mark what is speculation).
#4 - "for that matter, at what point in time did 'before arraignment' become 'after arraignment'? (please KISS - IANAL) - the presumption is that when he left county lock-up that he went to court, and that after court he was shipped to fed detention. As such the the arraignment took place between the housing stay changes.
So you assume the time in fed was while he was trying to amass bail?
#5 - "actively painting him as some kind of bitcoin terrorist" - I contend and maintain that you don't send 35 officers to anyone's house to do an ordinary, common, or usual arrest, that's the sort of thing you do when you expect lots of trouble. It doesn't matter how nice the guy actually is, what matters most is how the custodians of his life view him, their belief will determine in large part their actions. We all act based on information and belief, if the information they have lead them to believe that 30+ officers were necessary for that raid that's bad. And if those types of actions prejudiced the court to the extent of ordering a mile-high bail, then yes, they are treating burt as a bitcoin terrorist.
By 'actively painting him as a terrorist', I assumed you meant character assassination in the public eye -- a la David Koresh (well,
he was eventually
actually assassinated). But instead, they're doing all they can to keep this thing quiet. All most like the lead investigator might be embarrassed by the fact that, after 'expending vast resources' (your characterization), 35 armed gestapoans were unable to find enough evidence of a crime to hold our intrepid Mr. BurtW for more than three days.
I took the liberty of bolding "
the custodians of his life" in your quote above. It is such a curious turn of phrase. What exactly do you mean by this? Who are the custodian's of any person's life?
Jbreher, it's your turn, please get the police report?
Working on it. After several blind alleys, I have one active request submitted so far. But nothing is instant in this system, is it?
