Appeals court denies bail for ex-Conservative Party chief Edward Walsh

Edward Walsh arrives at federal court in Central Islip on June, 20, 2017. Credit: James Carbone
A three-judge panel on Tuesday denied a request from former Suffolk County Conservative Party leader Edward Walsh Jr. to be released on bail while he appeals his conviction on wire fraud and theft of government services, court records show.
In a one-sentence ruling, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit said only that it had considered arguments from Walsh’s attorneys and federal attorneys in denying him bail.
Walsh’s attorney, Nathaniel Marmur of Manhattan, declined to comment Tuesday night.
Walsh, 52, was convicted in 2016 of pocketing hundreds of thousands of dollars in pay from the Suffolk sheriff’s department while golfing, gambling and politicking on county time. At sentencing, Walsh, who worked as a lieutenant in the sheriff’s department, was ordered by U.S. District Court Judge Arthur Spatt to make $202,000 in restitution, forfeit an additional $245,000, and serve three years of supervised release.
The one-time party leader from East Islip asked for a new trial in filing an appeal in July 2017 and began serving his 2-year sentence in October of that year. He is now at the Devens Federal Medical Center in Ayers, Massachusetts, a facility that has a minimum security satellite camp nearby, according to the federal Bureau of Prisons website.
His release has been scheduled for July 13, 2019, the bureau said.
In filing for bail last month, Marmur cited “substantial issues” that may overturn Walsh’s conviction and argued that the timing of an appeals decision may come after Walsh has served his entire sentence because the median time for a federal appeals decision is about 14 months. He wrote that his client was not a flight risk or a danger to the community, two main factors in setting bail.
In asking for bail during the appeals case, the attorney also said Walsh “has had a particularly difficult time while incarcerated because he suffers from serious medical issues” that required his transfer to Devens.
The U.S. attorney’s office for the Eastern District, which tried the case against the former lieutenant, said Walsh had no grounds for appeal and that “little weight” should be given to the timing of his release because the bail request was filed 10 months after his incarceration.
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