LOS ANGELES—Following his February conviction on extortion and fraud charges in a case involving the Nike shoe corporation, Michael Avenatti was jailed in New York City to await trial in a separate case — on charges that he defrauded his former client, AVN Hall of Famer Stormy Daniels. But on April 12, Avenatti was released and allowed to return to Southern California, due to concerns that he could contract a coronavirus infection behind bars.
But even though the terms of his release — during which he remains under home confinement at a friend’s house in Venice, California — are set to expire after 90 days, Avenatti now appears intent on remaining on the west coast as long as he can. He was set to return for a June 17 sentencing hearing in the Nike case, by in a document filed Monday, Avenatti’s attorneys asked federal Southern District of New York judge Paul Gardephe to push the hearing until August.
According to the request, filed by defense attorneys Scott Srebnick and E. Danya Perry, prosecutors have already agreed to allow the delay, which they said was due to the COVID-19 pandemic and in particular to “the acute situation in New York.”
The document did not specify whether Avenatti was asking for an extension of his 90-day release, but the lawyers noted that he currently “remains under home confinement.”
In addition to his sentencing in the Nike case, in which Avenatti was convicted of attempting to extort the sportswear firm for $20 million, Avenatti also faces trial in the SDNY on charges that he swindled Daniels out of a $290,000 publisher’s advance for her 2018 memoir, Full Disclosure.
But on Friday, Avenatti through his attorneys asked that the trial which had been scheduled for June be put off until October. Government prosecutors agreed to the delay — but Avenatti also asked for the second time that the trial move to Los Angeles.
SDNY Judge Jesse Furman said he was willing to “revisit” Avenatti’s request, but only if the reasons for moving the trial were completely different from those rejected by Judge Deborah Batts last September.
After his indictments last year on charges in the Daniels and Nike cases, as well as other allegations that he cheated clients out of settlement payments, Avenatti was allowed to remain free to await trial. But in January of this year, federal agents arrested him again, claiming that he had continued to commit crimes while out on bail.
Following that arrest, Avenatti was confined to the federal Metropolitan Correctional Center in Manhattan, until his release due to coronavirus fears on April 24.
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