A Rockville resident from Liberia will remain behind bars without bail after an immigration judge ruled the man, whose charges of child sex abuse had been dismissed when no interpreter was found, was a “danger to the community and a flight risk.”
Mahamu Kanneh, 23, appeared in Baltimore’s federal immigration court Wednesday, on charges that he is in the U.S. illegally, according to Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials.
Kanneh did not have legal counsel during the proceedings and communicated through an interpreter working over a speaker phone.
Judge Elizabeth Kessler denied bail for Kanneh after ICE senior attorney Christopher R. Coxe deemed as “accurate and credible” information he said he had from witnesses regarding the sex abuse charges and Kanneh’s flight risk. Coxe also said there was a “strong likelihood” the government would bring additional immigration charges against Kanneh.
Kanneh has been at the center of intense media coverage since a judge dismissed nine child sex abuse charges against him in mid-July, ruling his right to a speedy trial had been violated. That trial was delayed while the court attempted to locate an interpreter who spoke Vai, a rare West African language.
Although several interpreters were found, none could commit to the trial. Prosecutors are appealing the dismissal.
“I am concerned that the criminal charges against you are serious,” Kessler said from the bench Wednesday. “Since they are on appeal, they are still pending.”
When the charges were dismissed in late July, Kanneh was free on his own recognizance, but after missing a bail hearing, a warrant was issued for his arrest. Local authorities discovered his Rockville apartment had been vacated and Kanneh was picked up by U.S. Marshals and city police in Philadelphia as he tried to run out the back door of ahome Aug. 6.
According to court transcripts, Theresa Chernosky, his public defender in the criminal case, said Kanneh was from Liberia but came to the U.S. in 2001 from a refugee camp in Ghana. Kessler said Kanneh’s refugee status had been revoked at the end of August by immigration officials.
Officials from the public defender’s office have said Chernosky is attempting to help him locate an immigration lawyer.
“We cannot give him an attorney because [the immigration case] is a civil matter,” said Susan Eastwood, a spokeswoman for the Executive Office for Immigration Review.
