Needleman/Morales Prison Update

According to the sentencing order signed by Judge Roger Titus, former Baltimore lawyer Stanley Needleman is to begin his year and a day prison term, as directed by the Federal Bureau of Prisons, no later than 2 p.m. Feb. 27, when he is scheduled to report to either FCI Fairston, (sic—apparently Fairton in Fairton, N.J.), FCI Otisville, N.Y., or FMC (Federal Medical Center) Butner, in North Carolina, depending on what the Bureau of Prisons decides.

Needleman has forfeited nearly $500,000 and paid more than $660,000 in back taxes, basically wiping out the cash hoard federal agents found in his home basement safe last spring. After his release from confinement, Needleman is scheduled to serve three year’s probation, according to the sentencing order.

Meanwhile, the girlfriend of former Needleman client Jose Morales is facing at least two years in prison for smuggling more than 20 and fewer than 40 grams of heroin to Morales in 2010 when he was in prison at USP Canaan in Northeastern Pennsylvania. According to the statement of facts attached to 35-year-old Terry Sadler’s sentencing memorandum, Morales called her from prison and arranged for her to buy heroin from a Baltimore woman. Sadler then packaged the drug in balloons and transferred it to Morales during prison visits, mouth to mouth. Morales’ mother was present during one of the visits, as was the couple’s young daughter. “If you’re gonna take [the child] in there then you’re straight,” Morales told Sadler during a Sept. 9, 2010, phone call.

Federal agents searched Sadler’s Hanover, Pa. home in the fall of 2010 and found heroin stashed in a closet, after which Sadler confessed. According to the statement of facts, “At the DEA’s request, SADLER agreed not to tell Morales about the search warrant. Nevertheless, in October, 2010, during continuing phone conversations between the two, SADLER discussed the investigation with Morales.”

Sadler’s sentencing is scheduled for March 19 before Judge Titus.

Morales’s trial was originally scheduled to begin this week, but was postponed until next June due, in part, to “the unusual and complex nature of this case, the nature of its prosecution, the existence of novel questions of fact and law,” according to a Dec. 5 order from Judge Titus.

Tags: Baltimore, crime, federal prison, heroin, jose morales, stanley needleman, terry sadler