A federal district court judge today allowed a defendant’s motion to have new counsel appointed and said the court will address his motion to withdraw his guilty plea after receiving a response from the government on the matter.
“The office of the federal public defender shall promptly appoint new counsel,” wrote United States District Judge James C. Dever III regarding Yacine Rahmani’s motion filed earlier this month to seek a new attorney and to withdraw his guilty plea.
The case involves a traffic stop by the Halifax County Sheriff’s Office in which 47 bricks of heroin and about a pound of marijuana was seized.
Rahmani, in a December 6 letter to Dever, described himself as the driver for his co-defendant, Bryan Walter Riccaldo, and said he was only aware there was marijuana in the vehicle. He said he was unaware of the heroin or a gun which was found following the stop for speeding last year.
In the letter Rahmani described himself as a “victim of bad investigation and (an) ineffective lawyer. Being away from my family and my country made me feel so hopeless and helpless and pushed me to give up my rights without fighting.”
Previous court documents have tied Rahmani and Riccaldo to reputed Rocky Mount gang leader Tyrone “Ty Nitty” Foreman, whose nickname was found in a handwritten ledger.
Foreman and others face various narcotics and fraud counts.
Rahmani had already entered a guilty plea to charges lodged against him that in count 1 the two men knowingly and intentionally conspired to distribute and possess with the intent to distribute heroin, marijuana, and fentanyl and in count two they aided and abetted one another to possess and distribute heroin and marijuana.
The amount attributable to Riccaldo is a kilogram or more of heroin, a quantity of marijuana, and 400 grams or more of fentanyl.
The amount attributable to Rahmani is 100 grams or more of heroin, a quantity of marijuana, and 400 grams or more of heroin.
Riccaldo is scheduled for sentencing in Raleigh before Dever January 31 after waiving indictment and pleading guilty to two counts in October.
