It was meant to be the culmination of nearly a decade of revelations about corruption at the highest levels of the U.S. Navy, where Leonard Glenn Francis — the mastermind of the scandal that has tarnished the service — was supposed to be sentenced for his crimes.
Instead, the hearing Thursday morning in the San Diego federal courtroom of U.S. District Judge Janis Sammartino was oddly muted — mostly because the main figure was in custody some 3,500 miles away in Caracas, Venezuela.
Francis, known by the nickname “Fat Leonard” because of his once-ample size, was arrested by Interpol agents on Tuesday at Simón Bolívar International Airport. He had been on the run for more than two weeks after cutting off his GPS monitor at his rented home in Torrey Highlands on Sept. 4 and hightailing it out of the jurisdiction.
Francis was about to board a plane, trying to reach his final destination of Russia, when he was apprehended, according to a Venezuelan Interpol official.
That meant the hearing was a bit of an anticlimax. Sammartino said there was not much to do without Francis being present. She set another hearing for Dec. 14 to further assess the status of the case.
Francis will have to be extradited back to the U.S., which will almost certainly be challenging. While the U.S. and Venezuela have an extradition agreement dating back 100 years, diplomatic and other relations between the nations are poor.
The U.S. does not recognize the country’s president, Nicolás Maduro, as the legitimate ruler of the nation and has imposed heavy sanctions on him. Instead, the U.S. considers Juan Guaidó, the leader of Venezuela’s National Assembly, as the interim president.
Even when relationships between countries are strong, an extradition can take months or years to complete, according to the Department of Justice’s Office of International Affairs, which plays a central role in bringing fugitives back to the U.S.
If Francis does return, he will have a couple of more problems to contend with.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Valerie Chu told Sammartino that Francis violated a federal law penalizing people for not showing up for court appearances. If he is ultimately charged with that, it could add another five years to his potential sentence.
His flight from justice could also put his entire plea agreement in jeopardy, as a clause in it says that by committing nearly a dozen acts, such as not appearing in court or committing new crimes, Francis would be in breach of the deal. The government could file any charges, including those it had previously dismissed as part of the agreement.
Francis will also need new lawyers. Devin Burstein, his San Diego attorney, told the judge he would be filing a motion asking off the case “based on an irreparable breakdown in the attorney-client relationship.”
Little was said otherwise about Francis or his escape from custody at the hearing.
His escape and his medical situation will likely be an issue in post-trial motions filed by four Navy officers who were convicted at a trial this spring of conspiracy, bribery and fraud. Francis was expected to testify during the trial, but was not called to the stand.
He had been living outside the jail in San Diego since 2018 under an extraordinary medical furlough and house arrest. He was said to be suffering from medical maladies that include renal cancer, but the complete extent of his medical problems and prognosis have not been fully revealed.
Authorities said Francis appeared to have planned his escape as neighbors in his gated community reported seeing moving vehicles at his home in the days prior. The day he cut off his GPS monitor, it took authorities more than eight hours to notify the U.S. Marshals Service, the agency responsible for the manhunt.
Experts speculated that would have given him ample time to make any type of escape, including the path he ultimately took crossing the border into Mexico. The Venezuelan Interpol official said Francis traveled from Mexico to Cuba before arriving in Venezuela.
