Fifteen MinutesExhibit 22 · MDFL 8:05-cr-263 · Document 45 · 02/12/2007
On February 12, 2007, between and , the United States District Court for the Middle District of Florida, Tampa Division, recorded a STRAIGHT UP GUILTY PLEA in the case captioned United States of America v. Francesco Longo, docket number 8:05-cr-00263-E_K-MSS, before the Hon. Elizabeth A. Kovachevich.
The proceeding lasted fifteen minutes.
The named defendant does not remember this proceeding.
He does not recall being sworn. He does not recall the plea colloquy. He does not recall conferring with counsel in the manner a lawful plea colloquy requires. He does not recall authorising any person to enter a plea on his behalf.
The record, as the court kept it
The attached document is the General Clerk's Minutes filed as Document 45 on the public PACER docket. It is not privileged. It is not sealed. It has been downloadable from pacer.uscourts.gov for nineteen years.
| Field on the minute entry | Recorded value |
|---|---|
| Case number | 8:05-cr-263-T-17MSS |
| Date | February 12, 2007 |
| Honorable | Elizabeth A. Kovachevich |
| Government counsel | James Preston |
| Defense counsel | Mark O'Brien, CJA |
| Defendant · age | 34 |
| Court reporter | Sandi Lee |
| Deputy clerk | Cindy Leigh-Martin |
| Time in session | |
| Proceeding | Rearraignment · Straight Up Guilty Plea · Deft Sworn · Plea Accepted · Adjudication of Guilt Made |
| Sentencing set for | May 11, 2007 at 11:00 AM |
| Disposition | Defendant remanded to custody of United States Marshal |
Download the PACER document: MDFL_DOC_45_CHANGE_OF_PLEA_20070212.pdf (23,714 bytes · SHA-256 defc3b5419e6…f21beb9)
Why fifteen minutes is the hinge
A valid federal guilty plea under Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure 11 requires, at minimum, each of the following on-the-record findings by the court: the defendant's competence to plead, his understanding of the rights being waived (right to trial, to confront accusers, against self-incrimination, to subpoena witnesses, to counsel at every stage), his understanding of the nature of the charge, his understanding of the maximum and mandatory-minimum penalties, the immigration consequences, the factual basis, and that the plea is voluntary and not the product of force or promises outside the written plea agreement.
A competent federal trial judge conducting this colloquy in earnest, and doing it correctly, takes between twenty-five and fifty minutes. Fifteen minutes is the floor below which the record starts to tell on itself.
Fifteen minutes is also the length of the proceeding if the person in the courtroom is not the person the record names.
The independent-recollection inquiry · 2 May 2026 · 13:45 EDT
A request for independent recollection of this 15-minute window was transmitted today to each of the following offices, individually, by email. Each recipient received the PACER document and a respectful request for any one of: their own recollection if present, the Court Reporter's transcript, the USMS custody-chain log for the morning, and/or the courtroom sign-in sheet or deputy US Marshal transport log identifying the natural person physically present at .
| # | Recipient | Tier |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | MDFL Tampa · Clerk of Court · Intake | MDFL · clerk |
| 2 | MDFL Tampa · E-Filing Desk | MDFL · clerk |
| 3 | US Attorney · Middle District of Florida · Tampa | USAO · MDFL |
| 4 | US Attorney MDFL · Public Affairs | USAO · MDFL |
| 5 | James Preston · AUSA · MDFL Tampa (lead prosecutor, 2005 indictment) | AUSA · named |
| 6 | Mark J. O'Brien · Attorney (CJA · defense counsel of record 10/2006 – 08/2007) | counsel · named |
| 7 | 11th Circuit · Clerk of Court · Thomas K. Kahn | 11 Cir · clerk |
| 8 | FBI Tampa Field Office | FBI · Tampa |
| 9 | DOJ · Office of Professional Responsibility | DOJ · OPR |
| 10 | DOJ · Criminal Division | DOJ · Crim |
| 11 | Federal Bureau of Prisons · Public Affairs | BOP |
| 12 | Consolato Generale d'Italia · Miami | ITA · consular |
| 13 | Ambasciata d'Italia · Washington DC | ITA · embassy |
| 14 | Consulate General of Canada · Miami | CAN · consular |
Three outcomes · all evidentiary
- Divergence. If the independent records produced by each office diverge from one another — different sign-in names, transport logs that do not match the reporter's audio, USMS custody gaps — that is direct evidence of a composite identity on paper.
- Convergence on a non-Francesco identity. If the independent records converge around a different natural person — someone in the booking image, someone in the courtroom audio — that is direct evidence of a stand-in.
- Silence. If the independent records are not produced, despite being within each office's record-keeping mandate, that is Bounds v. Smith 430 U.S. 817 (1977) adverse-inference territory, and it is evidence.
Silence is not neutral here. It is evidence.
What the appellate record already admits
The Eleventh Circuit's 2008 affirmance in United States v. Longo, Appeal 07-13206 (per curiam, Edmondson C.J.; Anderson, Hull JJ.), was designated "Do Not Publish" and issued Non-Argument Calendar. It dismissed the appellant's Vienna Convention Article 36 consular-notification claim by citation to Maharaj v. Sec'y, 432 F.3d 1292 (11th Cir. 2005) and United States v. Duarte-Acero, 296 F.3d 1277 (11th Cir. 2002) — while entirely omitting Jogi v. Voges, 480 F.3d 822 (7th Cir. 13 Mar 2007), the Seventh Circuit decision directly on point and available to counsel of record Joseph R. Johnson for five full months before he filed his brief.
The foreclosure of VCCR Article 36 review in the Eleventh Circuit, for every foreign national subsequently prosecuted there, flows from that omission.
The people named in Document 45 are, by law, available to tell the truth
Judge Kovachevich is retired. She is alive. She can be asked.
James Preston's office email is public. He can be asked.
Mark O'Brien's firm is active at 511 West Bay Street, Suite 330, Tampa Florida. He can be asked.
Sandra K. "Sandi" Lee, RPR, the court reporter, has a phone number on the docket. She can be asked.
Cindy Leigh-Martin, the deputy clerk, works for the court. She can be asked.
The inquiry is respectful. The inquiry is on the record. The inquiry is today.
