Ties That Bar A previously undiscovered familial conflict of interest involving one of its judges led a panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit last Monday to withdraw a criminal case ruling handed down four days earlier.
Soon after Judges Julio Fuentes, Marjorie Rendell and Michael Chagares affirmed the sentence in U.S. v. Passalaqua, the federal Public Defender’s Office told the court that Fuentes’ daughter, Karina Fuentes, one of its attorneys, was listed as the author of the defense brief. The clerk’s office vacated the ruling and assigned the case to a new panel.
