Durham Remains In Custody After Hearing Delayed Until Monday

Attorneys representing Tim Durham have agreed to postpone his scheduled initial appearance in federal court in Los Angeles where he was taken into custody Wednesday until Monday, but in the meantime he's cooling his heels in federal lockup at an L.A. jail. WISH-TV reports federal prosecutions are requesting that Durham be held without bond while awaiting trial on the 12-count indictment against him, which may suggest they fear Durham is a flight risk. "The flight risk may be the fact that investigators may have determined that he has significant connections and perhaps bank accounts in other countries," a public affairs representative of the U.S. Attorney's office in L.A. told WISH-TV. The likelihood some of the funds bilked from Fair Finance made it into overseas accounts is probably a pretty safe bet. Ask Durham's ex-father-in-law, a former high-ranking officer in the OSS with CIA ties, about offshore accounts. Durham's business partners, James Cochran and Rick Snow, both were released on their own recognizance after their initial appearance in federal court yesterday in Indianapolis. The two were required to surrender their passports and agreed to home detention.

UPDATE: It doesn't look like Republicans who pocketed close to $1 million in campaign contributions from Durham have any intention of returning the money to the bankruptcy trustee for Fair Finance, including one of the largest recipients, Gov. Mitch Daniels, according to WRTV's Norm Cox. "The money's long gone. It's several years gone now," he said. "It'd be hard to find." Daniels, who has a personal net worth of at least $50 million, accepted $280,000 in contributions from Durham. If he plans to run for president, his attitude about this could really come back to bite him hard in the battleground state of Ohio where more than 5,000 people were defrauded by Durham.  "Republican House Speaker Brian Bosma, who, along with the Republican caucus, received more than $50,000 from Durham, said Wednesday it wouldn't be feasible to return Durham's money," Cox said. Indiana Democratic Party Chairman Dan Parker has been pressing Republicans to return money they received. "Republicans have resisted returning this money by making excuses that it already had been spent and that Durham hadn't been charged with a crime," said state party Chairman Dan Parker. "Well now he has, and we're renewing our call that any candidate or campaign that accepted money from Durham or his company should return that money to the bankruptcy trustee." Parker didn't say if he thought former U.S. Rep. Baron Hill (D) and former Mayor Bart Peterson (D) should return campaign contributions they received from Durham, albeit much smaller sums.

UPDATE II: KTLA reports that fights among prisoners broke out Wednesday at the federal detention facility where Durham is being held. That's the same day Durham was taken into custody at the facility in the early morning hours. KTLA reports:

A fight broke out at the federal Metropolitan Detention Center in downtown Los Angeles Wednesday night, according to authorities.


Seven to 10 inmates were involved in the incident, which began at about 8:00 p.m.

The detention center, located at the corner of Aliso and Alameda streets, houses both male and female prisoners.

There was no word of any inmates being transported to hospitals.

Authorities did talk about setting off tear gas to try to bring the situation under control, and FBI agents responded to the detention center to

A police helicopter circled above the facility, and a swarm of LAPD officers protected the perimeter.