The government promptly followed through both with a written filing approving the release on the same conditions as pretrial, and then later agreed to a signature bond - a concession made out of professional courtesy and which was not part of the orginal proposal. Mr. Kent and Mr. Washington both thank the government, and in particular appellate counsel Susan Raab and trial counsel William Mackie, for this generous and courteous concession.
Judge Schlesinger was initially of the view that he lacked jurisdiction to authorize an appeal bond prior to issuance of the mandate. Judge Schlesinger had his clerk fax all the district court bond filings to the Eleventh Circuit. This then necessitated a faxed notion by Mr. Kent [that again, the government graciously agreed to not oppose] to the Court of Appeals requesting that jurisdiction be temporarily relinquished to the district court for that purpose. Circuit Clerk Kahn saw to it that that the motion was promptly seen by the appropriate judges who in record time caused a faxed order to issue the very next day authorizing Judge Schlesinger to rule on the appeal bond motion. Upon receipt of that fax from the Eleventh Circuit, Judge Schlesinger immediately signed Mr. Washington's bond order, releasing him on his signature.
Thereupon the clerk's office in Jacksonville immediately saw to it that the appropriate orders were faxed to Eglin Federal Prison Camp, where Mr. Washington is housed, and to the Miami clerk's office for the third party custodian, who resides in Miami, to sign, which was done. As of this writing arrangements are being made by the United States Marshal to take Mr. Washington before the nearest available federal Magistrate Judge for him to sign his release and the judge to endorse the bond.
This entire process took extraordinary effort and cooperation on the part of Judge Schlesinger and his office, especially his chief assistant, William Baxter, Esq., the United States Attorney's Office, especially Susan Raab, Esq., and William Mackie, Esq., , the United States Clerks office in Jacksonville, Miami and Pensacola, with special recognition to Mrs. Jenny Flick, Eglin Federal Prison Camp, especially Case Manager Dee Motley, the United States Marshal's Office, especially Inspector Ralph Carr, and above all, Paralegal Specialist Steven Kruer of the Federal Public Defender's Office.