Despite facing a pretrial hearing for federal drug-trafficking charges, Ghassan Majdalani worried Monday morning about missing class and graduating.
Majdalani, 21, is the first of three UW-Madison seniors scheduled to appear in U.S. District Court this week following the largest Ecstasy-distribution indictment in Dane County history.
At the detention hearing, Majdalani’s attorney requested conditions for release to include a stipulation allowing the communications arts major to attend an evening class. The order otherwise mandates a 6 p.m. to 7 a.m. curfew.
U.S. Attorney Tim O’Shea agreed to the request and the court granted Majdalani a release order, ending his three-and-a-half day detainment.
Police arrested Majdalani along with Matthew Louie, 22, and Ashkan Farhadieh, 21, Friday, while attempting to break up a six-member drug ring accused of funneling the drug from Amsterdam, through Miami and Pennsylvania, into western Wisconsin. The indictment included Augusto Rodriguez of Miami and two Penn State graduates, Steven Larson and Farhadieh’s brother Paymon.
Madison resident Steven Santana, from whom investigators seized 11,000 of the controlled pills, is being charged in a second indictment.
Majdalani could face up to 20 years in prison for allegedly conspiring to distribute Ecstasy on the UW campus. He appeared mildly before the court Monday, dressed in powder-blue county-issue attire, his head lowered and hands behind his back.
“Yes, your honor,” Majdalani answered after judge Stephen Crocker asked whether he understood the penalties for breaking the release conditions.
The district magistrate and O’Shea enumerated 22 conditions in the order, which include meeting with a pretrial officer upon notice, and the amendment to allow for class attendance.
Majdalani’s conditions are heavily laden with restrictions on drug and alcohol use, and limit him to travel between Dane County and Winnebago County, where his parents reside in Oshkosh.
He forfeited U.S. and Israeli passports to the court.
“There are two concerns: endangerment to the community and the risk of flight,” O’Shea said. “They say he will be with his mother 24 hours a day, seven days a week.”
The defendant’s mother, Kathleen Majdalani, will act as a third-party custodian — she plans to move to Madison to accompany the college student wherever he goes. O’Shea said parental custody is not an unusual condition, adding it is a preferable substitute for an electronic tracking bracelet.
Majdalani smiled and waved at his mother and father, who sat close together at the far right of the courtroom as he was led in.
Later, he stared intently through a pair of rimless glasses as O’Shea spelled the names of potential witnesses for the U.S. Attorney’s case. O’Shea named six UW students: Brooke Alexejun, Andrew Borland, Michael Coyne, Victoria Koven, Jackie Mogol and Michelle Rusch.
Mogol denied she knew Majdalani or anything about the case. The other five witnesses could not be reached for comment Monday.
Louie is scheduled to appear before the court at 1:30 p.m. Thursday. Farhadieh’s hearing is at 9:30 a.m. Friday.
It took just eight minutes to settle Majdalani’s release, but Farhadieh faces six counts, as opposed to Majdalani’s one, and Louie has a prior conviction for cocaine possession.
O’Shea said the U.S. attorneys would likely be especially aggressive with the cases, citing concern over the growing popularity of Ecstasy among college-aged people.
“This drug can cause permanent brain damage to the synapses, depending on the chemistry of your body,” O’Shea said. “It can result in memory loss and depression. Part of the reason we brought this case is to get that message out.”
Additional information about Ecstasy, known by its chemical name MDMA, can be found at www.usdoj.gov/dea/concern/mdma/mdmaindex.htm, as suggested by O’Shea.
Court documents indicated Majdalani’s attorney, Bruce Rosen, knew of the DEA investigation “many months” before Friday’s indictment. Rosen had corresponded with O’Shea since at least April 12, volunteering Majdalani’s surrender should the U.S. Attorney ever levy charges.
He said the defendant’s parents are determined for Majdalani to graduate before any criminal action is completed. He is scheduled to graduate this summer.
