Prosecutor Opposes Rent-A-Husband Motion

PORTLAND, Maine – Defense attorney Daniel G. Lilley received the state’s opposition brief to his July 15 motion to dismiss all securities fraud charges against client Kaile R. Warren, Jr., founder of Rent-A-Husband franchise system.The hearing will be held tomorrow morning at 8:30.

Assistant Attorney General Michael J. Colleran states that Warren’s motion improperly invites the court to sit in review of the grand jury’s determination. He refutes that notion saying, “Under well-established law, the Court is prohibited from accepting this invitation.”

Colleran claims that Warren’s motion does not even attempt to identify any defect in counts one and two, theft by deception and securities fraud, of the superseding indictment, and the claimed defect in count three, sale of unregistered securities, is in fact fully consistent with the law.

The assistant attorney general states that Warren claims the grand jury did not have any evidence that Warren knew the instruments he sold were securities and they were not exempt from registration requirements. “He argues that the grand jury’s determination was based on alleged “misinformation” presented by the State’s attorney pertaining to count three, unregistered securities,” he contends.

Colleran asserts that the well-established law in Maine is that courts are not authorized to inquire into the sufficiency or correctness of the information where a grand jury made a determination. “The indictment must either be sufficient or deficient on its own; the law does not permit the Court to go behind the indictment to second-guess the grand jury,” he declares.

But defendant Kaile Warren disagrees with the prosecutor. He said,  “Assistant Attorney General Colleran's flaunting that the courts are not authorized to inquire as to the sufficiency or correctness of the information provided to a grand jury to help them make a determination, shows an untouchable attitude towards manipulating a grand jury to promote a personal agenda.”

He said given that Colleran's agenda and moral compass are set towards guilt, it is unreasonable to assume that the best interest of justice has been served. “The grand jury system lacks balance, thus the scales of justice are tipped recklessly towards the assumed good faith and knowledge of the prosecutor," he asserts.

In his brief, Colleran states that even if the court were permitted to accept Warren’s invitation, the motion should be denied because it is baseless on the merits. He said Warren merely speculates that the theft and securities fraud counts must be tainted because, in his view, the count on the sale of unregistered securities was improperly based.

The assistant attorney general concludes that although this appears to be an issue of first impression for Maine courts, court in other jurisdictions have long interpreted the mens rea requirements for criminal securities violations in the same manner. “Because count three [unregistered securities] correctly reflects the mens rea requirement, and because Warren has claimed no other defects in the Superseding Indictment, Warren’s motion to dismiss should be denied.”

Colleran said there was no delay in filing his response this week, three days prior to the hearing. When asked if he expected the Judge to issue a decision tomorrow, he said “He may rule from the bench or he may take the matter under advisement and issue a later ruling.” He said he had no further comment at this time.

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Related Reading:

• Website releases documents on Kaile Warren case, The Independent
• Rent-A-Husband Heads to Court
• Rent-A-Husband's Warren to have day in court
• Rent-A-Husband Fall from Grace
• Rent-A-Husband CEO Kaile Warren goes on the offense,The Independent
• Rent-A-Husband founder indicted on felony charges – USATODAY