State of Minnesota v. Nicholas Rekieta, Kayla Rekieta, April Imholte

Will Nicholas Rekieta take the plea deal offered to him?


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From my perspective, Rekieta's bargaining power is very likely to be at its peak right away at the start of the case, before he's tried and failed to suppress the evidence from the warrant, but it could be that the time and expense of a jury trial is valued more.
We don't know if the county attorney has made an offer yet. Probably not, since there isn't any rush.
The wheeling and dealing starts there, but I also assume that it may also be his point of maximum leverage. [PL] My only experience with lawsuits is in civil court, but in general the deals tend to be made in the days or hours before and after important events, and otherwise nobody really thinks about talking to the other side. That said, all of your behavior leading up to those hearings is part of the negotiation, and the evidence demand letter as written might be a "fuck you" if it's overly extensive.

There is one interesting possibility, though - if Nick's side goes for a motion to quash the evidence from the search warrant, they may have to brief it and have a hearing or conference on the issue. If Nick presents a good briefing there or if the prosecutor fucks up or if the judge seems skeptical, Nick may be able to get a better deal around that event. Of course, Nick's personality makes it seem unlikely that he would accept a deal if his position on the warrant looks OK.

After that, if the warrant gets tossed, there's nothing on him and if the warrant doesn't get tossed, he's fucked, so no deals are going to happen.
 
They're just doing a discovery to see how fucked they are and if they have any leverage. This case seems pretty basic in terms of legit warrant with PC, legit search
There may be a dog and pony show for a while but if he has any sense they'll take the easy probation plea deal
 
There is one interesting possibility, though - if Nick's side goes for a motion to quash the evidence from the search warrant, they may have to brief it and have a hearing or conference on the issue. If Nick presents a good briefing there or if the prosecutor fucks up or if the judge seems skeptical, Nick may be able to get a better deal around that event. Of course, Nick's personality makes it seem unlikely that he would accept a deal if his position on the warrant looks OK.
Yes. The motion to quash should be heard at the omnibus hearing in August. By then, the State should have turned over all its disclosures, too.
 
A strip mall lawyer who posts on Twitter under his own name sounds about right.
>call someone a child molestor
>penalty: an apology
>decide to pay the most expensive man in the nation to not have to say "I'm sorry"

>get caught with 25 grams of cocaine
>penalty: 3 to 25 years in prison
>decide to call up JC Penny for a referral to the lawyer next door

Nick seeking a million minutes in the clink with those priorities.
 
Yes. The motion to quash should be heard at the omnibus hearing in August. By then, the State should have turned over all its disclosures, too.
Even including the ludicrous laundry list White presented? This kind of thing is meant to be a minefield where if you fuck up and fail to disclose on a single request, there we go, appeal time. I don't see anything obviously bogus in this, but most discovery like this is a fairly short list of things, like Brady material (which this has while not directly citing Brady). This is multiple pages.
 
I posted the presumptive sentence many pages back but can't be bothered to look up how many months it is again, but it is a presumptive STAYED sentence.

The only way Balldo gets jail time if is he behaves like such a fool that the judge departs from the presumptive sentence. And guns in the house with kids and drugs would be grounds for a departure.

Minnesota loves probation for first-timers. Balldo would know that if he was more than just a paper Minnesota attorney.
There is also an option to impose up to a year incarceration (it's a footnote to the table). In MN that's reduced by a third off the top, then any time spent in accrues a bunch of good behavior credit. So tops a couple months even if a year were imposed. But more likely would be a bracelet (or, if he had a job, travel to and fro). Sometimes, even if there is time to be served, they let people go to work and just return to jail at night (but that's jail and short-term, not prison, and idr/k where this set of charges would direct someone).

And you're right on the love of probation, though it varies. But as a reference point, Nick's own client - the one he got so mad at the judge out that he had to a cost her in the elevator and then continue on insulting years later onstream - was charged with over 40 felonies, embezzling (theft by swindle in mn) hundreds of thousands of dollars over several years. Pleaded to the top 5, asked for probation, judge said ha, no, you're going to serve time, sentenced her to a few years, and she was out inside of 1, then under supervision (still is). Point is, even in that case, with demonstrably and crushing harm to many people, performed over many years, and a judge decidedly put off by the audacity to ask for probation, the woman served very little time relative to what could have been.

Even including the ludicrous laundry list White presented? This kind of thing is meant to be a minefield where if you fuck up and fail to disclose on a single request, there we go, appeal time. I don't see anything obviously bogus in this, but most discovery like this is a fairly short list of things, like Brady material (which this has while not directly citing Brady). This is multiple pages.
It does actually cite Brady. Para. 17.
 
Basically, if he really goes to the mat on this one, he's going to attack every individual piece of evidence from every procedural angle while simultaneously offering different, and probably contradictory, defenses as to why he did get found with the stuff.
Sounds super expensive with a low vector for success. I like where this is heading!
 
Review of Nick's attorney from google a year ago:

"Not very friendly, slightly condescending. When I googled Mr. White I found his twitter, he seems to enjoy what appears to be trolling on a regular basis which I found to be very odd for a lawyer. Odd experience all around, glad I did not use their services."

Absolutely perfect for Nick.

He was also a former air force master sergeant and won an "inspector of the year" award in the air force. Not signs of a good person to me. Most of his practice doesn't seem to be criminal law. He does have lots of appeals experience, but I would have thought Nick would have gone elsewhere if he had the money.

But if Nick wants to fight the case in unorthodox ways, this would be the sort of guy who would be willing to do it.
 
Didn't DUI guy or some other YouTube lawyer offer?

Still, I wasn't really suggesting that Nick would get out-of-jurisdiction counsel, I was just contrasting why they'd be more proactive in getting their appearance noted if they were.
DUI Guy is a shit lawyer. No offense to these lawtube clowns but if they are DUI, simple assaults, and other crumb cases out of their firms, they either aren't very good or something keeps them from being hired by large crim law firms. A lot of these lawyers have to put out their shingle because no one would hire them.

Nick doesn't need a guy that's just going to do what Nick tells him. Nick needs a negotiator that will candidly tell him what's reasonable and likely and what's not. The warrant isn't getting tossed.

Negotiate a deferred adjudication plea agreement on a lesser charge. Everyone wins. Prosecutor get a felony guilty plea, Nick walks away with no prison and a clean record if he completes the agreement.

Unfortunately Balldo seems unwilling to accept reality at this point.
 
Review of Nick's attorney from google a year ago:

"Not very friendly, slightly condescending. When I googled Mr. White I found his twitter, he seems to enjoy what appears to be trolling on a regular basis which I found to be very odd for a lawyer. Odd experience all around, glad I did not use their services."

Absolutely perfect for Nick.

He was also a former air force master sergeant and won an "inspector of the year" award in the air force. Not signs of a good person to me. Most of his practice doesn't seem to be criminal law. He does have lots of appeals experience, but I would have thought Nick would have gone elsewhere if he had the money.

But if Nick wants to fight the case in unorthodox ways, this would be the sort of guy who would be willing to do it.
Wait, he is hiring a guy who's offices are next to a JC Penny (I thought those died out), a Hallmark greeting card shop, and a UPS store? At least he can go to the Sushi Tango while talking about how much he is fucked. I heard mall sushi is about as tasty as gas station sushi
 
If Nick is requesting the bodycam footage to dispute probable cause (which again is a stupid expensive and probably losing argument to make with four reports, one familial, and a drug task force agent watching your cokestream and then FINDING COKE which will probably invalidate claims of the supposed white powder sighting om the stream being overzealous), does this mean it has become evidence and will now be part of the public documentation?

Nick gets everything for free and unredacted so it's not expensive to him. Also, Nick is too clever half. He streamed the other day and thought that he would refute the "cocaine weight loss" by saying he lost weight on a diet. The Probable Cause fact statement was that he lost weight, but not why he lost weight. He confirmed that PC observation by admitting weight loss. For PC cop doesn't need to establish the underlying reason, just that an observable fact occurred that justifies investigation. What was a PC challenge "You observed weight by watching two streams 4 months apart?" is just wrecked by his sua sponte comments confirming he lost weight. Observing weight loss was the weakest PC fact statement that Nick made the strongest. Because Nick thinks he's smarter than everyone else.

I hate these demand filings because they are boilerplate and pro forma. The prosecutor has to supply it to the defense. I especially the ALL CAPS Minnesota law warning at the end. That is only done to justify the first bill to the client that has likely never seen one before. These filings are like the bulk mail warnings printed on envelopes to the postmaster telling them it's illegal not to deliver the mail and the letter carrier will go to jail if it's not delivered forthwith.

The prosecutor, without any request, would have provided everything they will present at trial. All exhibits, numbered and catalogued, all witness lists, all witness statements, all exculpatory evidence including any Brady list cops being called.

The boiler plate tell in that long list of demands is that there is no date for production. It's because it's all governed by rule. Whatever evidence needs to be produced for the contested omnibus hearing and the timeline is set by rule, not by these boilerplate "forthwith" fee generators. Really it should be one sentence: "Dear Prosecutors, we don't waive the rules. Follow the rules. Respectfully, Defendant." They would stop entirely if the defense attorney couldn't charge for filing them.

Plea agreements waive the right to challenge the legality of a search, but there's an exception for "conditional pleas." With those, you take the plea but reserve the right to appeal a particular issue. They're used in cases with outcome determinative pretrial rulings to avoid the waste of time of a trial. It wouldn't be unreasonable for Nick to do that in this case, because if the warrant is valid he's pretty well fucked.
I don't think they'd offer him that. Just because of the kids and what essentially getting off on a technicality would look like after giving him sweetheart plea.

I think what they will offer is deferred adjudication on a lesser amount of coke. Drop other charges. He completes terms or finishes 20 mos of the lesser amount presumptive sentence. Waive all appeals. State gets their felony plea, keeps family together, saves prison and trial. Nick gets a clean record after completion, gets to be with kids as long as he passes drug tests. He'd be an idiot not to take it.

Nick won't like it but hopefully he chose a smart enough lawyer that convinces him that he's not winning on constitutional grounds. Even if he gets the warrant and case tossed, CPS still has evidence of neglect and drug use. His kids will be grown before he finishes tilting at windmills.
 
"Not very friendly, slightly condescending. When I googled Mr. White I found his twitter, he seems to enjoy what appears to be trolling on a regular basis which I found to be very odd for a lawyer. Odd experience all around, glad I did not use their services."
I tried digging through his Twitter when I found it but god it's such a repulsive pain. Endless 'gotchas', boomer-tier memes, unfathomable sneeding about Trump's legal situation and the fact that Biden has the audacity to be alive, picking fights with PETA as if they have any relevance at all in the modern day, etc. And he tweets SO MANY TIMES A DAY. It honestly reads like a politically-inverse plebbitor farming for updoots. Hiring a vindictive, twitter-brainworms lolyer does seem a Crackets thing to do though.

Also this tweet, lmao.

1718355800152.png
 
You guys are missing the critical fact that balldo had to go PAST Minneapolis AND St Paul and almost into fucking Wisconsin to find a lawyer he hasn’t already pissed off somehow.
He has a working relationship with Barnes. The current working theory is that this guy was directly recommended by Barnes and there's potential for Barnes to come on as Pro Hac Vice.
 
Really it should be one sentence: "Dear Prosecutors, we don't waive the rules. Follow the rules. Respectfully, Defendant."
The purpose of that document was to swagger in to indicate they're going to fight hard, attack everyone's character, be a pain in your ass, try to make news, and do you really want this fight because we will also appeal the shit out of everything.
 
Yep. Called it.

Going full on with the Barnes (esque) defense.

This probably ain't gonna be over any time soon. Settle in.
Nick’s Dunning-Kruger bites him in the ass again. For a self-described “shitty lawyer that can surprise people with how much he knows constitutional law”, he has this bizarre habit of taking extremely convoluted or highly technical defense strategies in his own lawsuits and it’s literally never paid off.

And it’s equally sad watching Robert Barnes go through his end stage Rudy Giuliani phase. The sooner he shuts up and goes back to sharking low info commies on political bets, the better.
 
It looks like the plan is a tooth and nail attack on the search warrant.
Theoretically, if they manage to prove the search was invalid, it doesn't matter what they found in the house. He walks.
This plan is going to horrifically fail. The probable cause beyond satisfies the totality of evidence standards via Gates
 
It feels like Nick is attacking this through two separate vectors. There's the legal vector where he has this lawyer attacking the validity of the search warrant, but there's a second vector where Nick is schmoozing the people prosecuting his case. He's talked on stream about how he knows the prosecutor and he really likes her, he's posturing that he got rid of all the booze and how it was so easy (unlike quitting Everquest), and he's putting on a fresh coat of paint with the haircut and these "gotta pick yourself up because GOD LOVES ME!" Instagram posts.

Feels like he's hedging it on both ends because if he gets the warrant tossed then he's off free, but if he doesn't then he wants to manipulate the prosecution into feeling like he was "in a dark place" and now he's skibidi-all better!
 
I think if he's going with somebody some distance away, on the border with Wisconsin, and they have worked with Barnes, that suggests he is preparing to dig in and fight. The discovery demand is voluminous and suggests they're gonna attack the warrant, try to exclude evidence, and other things.
Baring his teeth and putting on that he's prepared to dig in and fight is one way to try to get a good plea offer (another way would be show remorse and go to rehab... unsurprisingly, that does not appear to be Nick's style). We'll see if the prosecutor offers him a deal he can't refuse. If not, I suppose it'll go all the way, possibly including appeals unless the sentence is so light that the appeal would be a pointless waste of money.
If Nick is requesting the bodycam footage to dispute probable cause (which again is a stupid expensive and probably losing argument to make with four reports, one familial, and a drug task force agent watching your cokestream and then FINDING COKE which will probably invalidate claims of the supposed white powder sighting om the stream being overzealous), does this mean it has become evidence and will now be part of the public documentation?
No, but it would mean that it is in Nick's possession, and there's nothing that prevents him from choosing to release it if he thinks that it would help his public image (just like the depositions in the Vic Mignogna lawsuit, for those familiar with that case).

It only becomes evidence when either Nick or the prosecutor files it as evidence, which they may or may not do (well, the prosecutor almost certainly would, but Nick might find parts that he wants to introduce as defense exhibits if he thinks they support his defense - e.g. footage of the AR, if this supports his claim that it had a trigger lock), and that may be the footage in full, or just a condensed version that contains all the information significant to the case (there's one argument to be made that the full context is required, but there are contrasting arguments that the multiple bodycam videos will contain irrelevant and/or duplicative footage that doesn't need to be introduced).
The Probable Cause fact statement was that he lost weight, but not why he lost weight. He confirmed that PC observation by admitting weight loss. For PC cop doesn't need to establish the underlying reason, just that an observable fact occurred that justifies investigation. What was a PC challenge "You observed weight by watching two streams 4 months apart?" is just wrecked by his sua sponte comments confirming he lost weight.
That's something he'd already said before, including the part about getting sick twice and losing even more weight. So he's not changing his story from what he'd said pre-arrest. Plus, it's not like they can't just look at him. They don't really need an admission when it's plainly evident from his appearance.
 
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