Cambridge man can go free while awaiting charges

by boston globe

Robel Phillipos, 19, charged with lying to Boston Marathon bombing investigators

YouTube via Reuters

Robel Phillipos has been charged with making false statements to investigators in connection with the Boston Marathon bombing.

Federal prosecutors have changed their minds and have now agreed that the 19-year-old Cambridge man arrested in connection with the Boston Marathon bombing investigation can be released from custody while awaiting trial on a charge that he lied to investigators.
Robel Phillipos was arrested by federal authorities last week, along with two men from Kazakhstan, as investigators continued to probe the movements of suspected bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev. Tsarnaev was friends with Phillipos and the two Kazakh men at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth.
Phillipos is accused of lying to federal agents when they questioned him about the disposal of items from Tsarnaev’s dorm room in the days after the April 15 bombings that killed three people and wounded more than 260.
Federal prosecutors said last week they wanted to detain Phillipos because they believed he posed a serious risk of flight.

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But in a document filed by today Phillipos’s attorney, Derege B. Demissie, and US Attorney Carmen Ortiz’s office, both said they had agreed on a plan to release Phillipos from custody. Under the plan, Phillipos would be under home confinement at a home other than his own, he would wear a monitoring ankle bracelet, and post a secured bond worth $100,000.

“Since the initial appearance, the parties have conferred extensively and now agree that the court can fashion strict conditions of release that will reasonably assure the defendant’s appearance at future proceedings,’’ the attorneys said in the joint filing.
The document also suggests that a quick resolution of the criminal charges could be in the offing. Both sides asked for a probable cause hearing to be changed to May 16 so the both sides can “confer about how this matter should proceed.’’
The pretrial release plan must still be approved by the court.
In court documents filed Saturday, Phillipos’s lawyers and supporters said he is the only son of Genet Bekele, a domestic violence specialist who moved to the state in 1981 and has since earned three college degrees: an associate’s degree, a bachelor’s degree in political science from Northeastern University, and a master’s degree in social work from Boston University.
According to the defense filing, Phillipos is bilingual in Amharic and English but is fully integrated into American life, having been raised here. In affidavits, friends and his attorney described Phillipos as a conscientious and civic-minded man who was “frightened and confused’’ when questioned about Tsarnaev after the bombings.
The two Kazakh men, Dias Kadyrbayev and Azamat Tazhayakov, were also charged last week with conspiring to obstruct justice for allegedly taking a backpack, emptied-out fireworks, and other items from Tsarnaev’s dorm room that night. The three friends then returned to the Kazakh men’s off-campus apartment in New Bedford.