WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. _ Citing his family ties to the Middle East and a likely fear of being a prison inmate with a law enforcement background as reasons he could run, a Palm Beach County judge on Friday denied former Palm Beach Gardens police officer Nouman Raja's request to be released from prison as he appeals his conviction and 25-year prison sentence in the 2015 shooting death of 31-year-old stranded motorist Corey Jones.
Had Palm Beach County Circuit Judge Joseph Marx approved Raja's request for an appellate bond, he could have returned home to his wife and his family for several years as he appealed the manslaughter and attempted murder convictions that made him the first Florida police officer in 30 years to be convicted of a crime related to an on-duty shooting death.
The prospect angered Jones' family members, who called Raja's request an attempt to wither escape or delay punishment for Jones' death.
In a six-page ruling on the issue, Marx expressed "significant concern" over the fact that Raja, 41, "was born and lived for a large portion of his youth" in the Middle East, later adding that the United States does not have a "strong, dependable" relationship with the nations where Raja may be tempted to flee.
Raja's wife, Karine, told Marx in a hearing on Raja's request Wednesday that her husband had not been to the Middle East in nearly two decades _ several years before the couple met, married and had two children.
Karine Raja pleaded with Marx to allow Raja to post an appellate bond so that he could return home to help her provide for and raise their children. But Marx in his ruling said he believed that the fear of a lengthy prison sentence could overrule those fears.
"The substantial length of Defendant's sentence and Defendant's vulnerable status in the prison as a former police officer are circumstances that the Court finds would be very tempting and motivating to Defendant to remove himself from the Court's jurisdiction," Marx wrote.
At Wednesday's hearing, Assistant State Attorney Brian Fernandes told Marx that with Raja's law enforcement background, he knows that chances were slim that an appellate fight would result in an overturned conviction and either an acquittal or a significant sentence reduction.
But defense attorney Richard Lubin and the rest of Raja's defense team after the hearing reiterated that they felt they had strong appellate issues and expressed confidence that an appellate court would overturn Raja's conviction. Among their claims are that Raja should not have been sentenced for both attempted murder and manslaughter in an incident that involved a single death, and that Marx made erroneous rulings during the trial regarding jury instructions and issues surrounding the testimony of medical examiner witnesses.
A Palm Beach County jury in March took a total of less than five hours to convict Raja, 41, of manslaughter by culpable negligence and first degree attempted murder charges in the shooting death of Jones. The drummer was on the phone with a roadside assistance operator getting a tow truck for his broken down SUV when Raja drove up on him in an unmarked van, dressed in plainclothes, on the southbound off-ramp of Interstate 95 in Palm Beach Gardens.
Although Marx allowed Raja's defense team a hearing in the case, he denied a request from Raja to be transported from prison to be there for it. Raja has been at the Florida Department of Corrections South Florida Reception Center in Miami since May 1, shortly after Marx sentenced him to 25 year is prison on each charge.
