Michael Hild (BizSense file)
Michael Hild scored a legal victory this week, as the former Live Well Financial CEO won his bid to remain on bond and out of prison for the foreseeable future while appealing his fraud conviction and related 44-month sentence.
U.S. District Court Judge Ronnie Abrams ruled in Hild’s favor on Monday, finding that Hild’s camp satisfied the main factors needed for release-pending-appeal.
Those factors are: that the defendant is not a flight risk and doesn’t pose a danger to the community; that the appeal is not solely for the purpose of delay; that the appeal raises a substantial question of law; and that that question has a likelihood of resulting in a reversal or new trial of a previous verdict.
Hild was found guilty by a jury on all counts after a three-week trial in April 2021 of a bond scheme that defrauded lenders and led to the collapse of his Chesterfield-based reverse mortgage company.
The federal courthouse in Manhattan where Michael Hild’s case has played out. (BizSense file)
He has remained free without incident on bond ever since, while fighting to have that verdict overturned or for a new trial based on the argument that his previous attorney, Benjamin Dusing, was wrongfully ineffective at trial due to distractions from personal conflicts. Abrams struck down that effort in a 64-page opinion in December and then sentenced Hild in January to 44 months in federal prison.
However, Abrams let Hild remain free following the sentencing hearing while his lawyers argued for the bond-pending-appeal stance, as well as negotiating with federal prosecutors about the amount of restitution Hild should pay.
Hild’s initial appeal was docketed on Feb. 10 and court documents show he plans to appeal on the grounds that Abrams erred in denying his request for a new trial.
In her three-page opinion on Monday allowing Hild to remain free, Abrams said she doesn’t dispute the fact that Dusing has done some unseemly things since the Hild trial in her Manhattan courtroom nearly two years ago. Dusing has come under fire in his home state of Kentucky while litigating two separate child custody battles with two women.
“To be sure, the court remains deeply troubled by Dusing’s shocking and shameful behavior in connection with the Kentucky litigation, which even included threats of violence against opposing counsel and the court’s staff, as well as the resulting professional sanctions levied against him in multiple jurisdictions,” Abrams wrote.
But Abrams does continue to believe what she stated when denying Hild a new trial: that the Dusing issue does present a “challenging question at the intersection of the Sixth Amendment right to conflict-free counsel and the modern reality… that other obligations, personal and professional, inevitably arise, even when ensuring a fair trial for the accused.”
Had Abrams ruled against Hild’s latest bond request, he was set to report to the U.S. Marshals Service May 1 to begin his sentence. The judge had recommended he serve his time in a federal facility near Richmond.
Hild is bound to the same conditions of bail that had been previously set when he was first arrested in 2019, just prior to Live Well’s forced bankruptcy at the hands of its main lenders.
His bond was set at $500,000 and is co-signed by his wife, Laura. He also was required to surrender his passport and restrict his travel to within Virginia, unless he gives 48 hours notice to U.S. Marshals to travel elsewhere in the U.S.
Michael Hild (BizSense file)
Michael Hild scored a legal victory this week, as the former Live Well Financial CEO won his bid to remain on bond and out of prison for the foreseeable future while appealing his fraud conviction and related 44-month sentence.
U.S. District Court Judge Ronnie Abrams ruled in Hild’s favor on Monday, finding that Hild’s camp satisfied the main factors needed for release-pending-appeal.
Those factors are: that the defendant is not a flight risk and doesn’t pose a danger to the community; that the appeal is not solely for the purpose of delay; that the appeal raises a substantial question of law; and that that question has a likelihood of resulting in a reversal or new trial of a previous verdict.
Hild was found guilty by a jury on all counts after a three-week trial in April 2021 of a bond scheme that defrauded lenders and led to the collapse of his Chesterfield-based reverse mortgage company.
The federal courthouse in Manhattan where Michael Hild’s case has played out. (BizSense file)
He has remained free without incident on bond ever since, while fighting to have that verdict overturned or for a new trial based on the argument that his previous attorney, Benjamin Dusing, was wrongfully ineffective at trial due to distractions from personal conflicts. Abrams struck down that effort in a 64-page opinion in December and then sentenced Hild in January to 44 months in federal prison.
However, Abrams let Hild remain free following the sentencing hearing while his lawyers argued for the bond-pending-appeal stance, as well as negotiating with federal prosecutors about the amount of restitution Hild should pay.
Hild’s initial appeal was docketed on Feb. 10 and court documents show he plans to appeal on the grounds that Abrams erred in denying his request for a new trial.
In her three-page opinion on Monday allowing Hild to remain free, Abrams said she doesn’t dispute the fact that Dusing has done some unseemly things since the Hild trial in her Manhattan courtroom nearly two years ago. Dusing has come under fire in his home state of Kentucky while litigating two separate child custody battles with two women.
“To be sure, the court remains deeply troubled by Dusing’s shocking and shameful behavior in connection with the Kentucky litigation, which even included threats of violence against opposing counsel and the court’s staff, as well as the resulting professional sanctions levied against him in multiple jurisdictions,” Abrams wrote.
But Abrams does continue to believe what she stated when denying Hild a new trial: that the Dusing issue does present a “challenging question at the intersection of the Sixth Amendment right to conflict-free counsel and the modern reality… that other obligations, personal and professional, inevitably arise, even when ensuring a fair trial for the accused.”
Had Abrams ruled against Hild’s latest bond request, he was set to report to the U.S. Marshals Service May 1 to begin his sentence. The judge had recommended he serve his time in a federal facility near Richmond.
Hild is bound to the same conditions of bail that had been previously set when he was first arrested in 2019, just prior to Live Well’s forced bankruptcy at the hands of its main lenders.
His bond was set at $500,000 and is co-signed by his wife, Laura. He also was required to surrender his passport and restrict his travel to within Virginia, unless he gives 48 hours notice to U.S. Marshals to travel elsewhere in the U.S.
So Hild slithers away again, at least temporarily. Stop granting this guy freedoms no one else would get and lock him away.
This is so awful, can we please lock this guy up?
The worst part, is that you know that if and when he loses his appeal(s)–because let’s be honest, he’ll just keep coming up with “flaws” in his trial–he’ll turn around and motion that his sentence be reduced by the “time served” while he was out on bond because those terms so “onerously restricted” his freedom of movement.
I worked for this company for about 3 years. The things that were done to show more applications were elderly finically abuse. It’s awful he is able to delay things this long.