Judge Refuses To Dismiss Padilla's Charges

MIAMI, March 23 -- Accused al-Qaeda operative Jose Padilla was held in military detention without charges as an enemy combatant for 3 1/2 years, but his constitutional right to a speedy trial has not been violated, a federal judge ruled Friday.

U.S. District Judge Marcia G. Cooke refused to scrap the terrorism charges that Padilla faces, saying that "dismissal of the indictment is not appropriate at this time."

Padilla was arrested May 8, 2002, and declared an enemy combatant by President Bush the next month. During the following years at the Navy brig in Charleston, S.C., Padilla was repeatedly interrogated about terrorism activities, but he was not formally charged until November 2005.

"There is absolutely no justification for the government's delay in bringing Mr. Padilla to trial," defense attorney Michael Caruso argued in writing.

The passage of time makes it more difficult "to build Mr. Padilla's side of the story," Caruso argued, because potential witnesses move or forget.

But Cooke found that in determining whether Padilla is getting a speedy trial, only the time after the filing of formal charges applies. His time at the brig doesn't enter that calculation.

"I agree that the law in this case is that a criminal trial proceeding begins with the filing of the criminal process," Cooke said. "Mr. Padilla has been promptly brought to court in that matter."

Padilla's controversial detention as an "enemy combatant" has several times emerged as a complication in the criminal case, and is likely to again.

In legal pleadings and an affidavit filed by Padilla's attorneys on his behalf, the defense has asserted that during his stay at the brig, the 36-year-old was subject to isolation in a 7-by-9-foot cell with no view to the outside world, was deprived of sleep, a clock and reading materials, and was hooded and forced to assume "stress positions" for long periods. He was also, they alleged, threatened with imminent execution.

Earlier this month, Cooke rejected defense arguments that brig conditions had rendered Padilla unfit for trial.

Next week, Cooke could rule on another defense motion asking for dismissal of the charges based on "outrageous government conduct" -- the alleged torture at the brig.