Jucutan request for early release granted

The U.S. District Court for the NMI has granted the request of former U.S Army Reserves member Jordan Jucutan for early release.

Last Thursday, District Court for the NMI Chief Judge Ramona V. Manglona granted Jucutan’s request for compassionate release.

In her order, Manglona also reduced Jucutan’s sentence to time-served and ordered the U.S Bureau of Prison to release him within 48 hours of the order. She also ordered Jucutan to home quarantine for at least 14 days after his release.

All the other terms of Jucutan’s original sentence remain in effect, including the imposition of three years of supervised release.

Manglona explained that the ongoing pandemic does not entitle every federal inmate to immediate release but the circumstance surrounding this case are exceptional. Taking Jucutan’s case into consideration, Manglona said Jucutan is not a violent offender or someone in need of rehabilitation. Manglona added that the fraud Jucutan committed involved a relatively small dollar amount committed over the span of years.

“There are many individuals the court would not consider releasing into the community, pandemic notwithstanding. But Jucutan is not one of them,” she said.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Garth Backe asked the judge to reconsider her decision, but she denied his motion.

Jucutan, who is serving a 28-month prison sentence for wire fraud and aggravated identity theft, requested early release because his alleged underlying medical conditions—obesity and asthma—puts him at a high risk of contracting COVID-19.

Jucutan started serving his sentence on July 17, 2019, and with four months reduction for good time, he was supposed to be released on July 11, 2021.

Jucutan was convicted on the charge of engaging in a scheme to defraud the U.S. government and obtaining money falsely by claiming he referred nominees or potential soldiers to enlist in the Army Reserve through the AR-RAP program and received $2,000 for every nominee that enlisted and went through the training.

Jucutan said he recruited a total of 38 nominees. He signed a sworn affidavit admitting he “stole” the personal information of four nominees, entered their information into the Docupak webpage and received $9,000 for the nominations. Dokupak runs the AR-RAP program.

On May 26, 2016, a federal jury found Jucutan guilty of four counts of wire fraud and four counts of aggravated identity theft.

Jucutan was incarcerated at the Federal Correctional Institution in Sheridan, Oregon.