Britton-Harr contempt hearing delayed, giving new defense attorney prep time

A contempt hearing that could land Patrick Britton-Harr in jail has been pushed back in order to give his new attorney time to get up to speed.

The hearing was scheduled for July 31 in Baltimore, but on Monday U.S. District Judge Ellen Lipton Hollander granted a motion requested by Britton-Harr’s new attorney to delay it.

In the motion, Gerald C. Ruter told the court he accepted the case July 24 and wrote that “in order to adequately represent Mr. Britton-Harr it is imperative that time is allotted for a review of at least the pleadings that bring this hearing before the court.”

Ruter, a Maryland criminal attorney, was appointed after Britton-Harr told the court he was unable to afford to hire a new lawyer. His previous attorney, David Barger, stepped away from the case in June.

The judge set a conference call for Aug. 12 to determine when the hearing will be held.

Britton-Harr, the owner and founder of Sarasota-based air service company AeroVanti, is facing a second contempt finding for allegedly violating court orders in a $30 million Medicare fraud case brought by federal prosecutors.

The hearing was requested by prosecutors who asked the judge force him to explain why he had not complied with discovery orders to disclose his finances after filing a status report detailing why he did not pay $575,000 as ordered in March.

In approving prosecutors’ request, Hollander warned that Britton-Harr could face jail time if he did not comply, writing that a “lack of funds … does not relieve him of his obligation to respond to the government’s discovery requests, as ordered by the court.”

She added that if he failed to obey the order “a court may issue a bench warrant for the arrest and incarceration of a contemnor, in order to compel compliance.”

Britton-Harr was found in contempt the first time March 4 after he sold an Annapolis, Maryland, home days after a $30 million judgement was filed against him and several companies he owns that had been charged with committing Medicare fraud.

The money from the sale, which violated a court order, was then allegedly transferred to AeroVanti, the Sarasota company that’s been hit with more than a dozen lawsuits and default judgements from clients, employees and vendors accusing it of misappropriating funds and failing to make payments as its planes sat unrepaired or were repossessed.