High-profile inmates like Michael Cohen and Billy McFarland are trying to get out of custody over coronavirus fears. Here are 9 who tried to get home early.
Michael Cohen (left), Tekashi 6ix9ine (center), and Billy McFarland (right).
AP Photo/Mary Altaffer; New York Daily News/Jefferson Siegal via Getty Images; AP Photo/Mark Lennihan
COVID-19 has infected hundreds of thousands of people worldwide and is currently spreading in prisons and jails across the US, including the notorious Rikers Island.
Some states and counties have started releasing hundreds of inmates to help prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus, but the federal prison system has not made any mass releases.
Several high-profile inmates have asked to be released, including rapper Tekashi 6ix9ine, Michael Cohen, and Billy McFarland.
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As the novel coronavirus outbreak continues to spread across the United States, multiple high-profile criminals and accused criminals have asked to be let out of prisons early.
COVID-19 has infected hundreds of thousands of people worldwide and has already hit US prisons. It is currently spreading across New York's infamous Rikers Island, and smaller facilities in Texas, South Dakota, and Michigan have reported cases.
Counties and states have started releasing hundreds of inmates from jails and prisons in New Jersey, Cleveland, Ohio, Nashville, Tennessee, and more. But the federal prison system has not taken similar measures.
Public health and corrections officials have issued warnings over current prison conditions and the possibility of COVID-19 spreading in such facilities, but no decisions have been made as to whether or not high-risk inmates will be released.
In the meantime, some well-known inmates — including Michael Cohen and Fyre Festival's Billy McFarland — have asked to be released citing concerns of the virus and, in some cases, long-lasting health problems.
Tekashi 6ix9ine is the most famous inmate to be released already. He cited his asthma, which puts him at higher health risk for COVID-19, as a reason to spend the rest of his sentence at home.
At least one other high-profile inmate — a parent who pleaded guilty in the college admissions scandal — has also already been released, but many others will likely remain behind bars.
Here are some of the most high-profile inmates asking to be released.
This article has been updated.
Daniel Hernandez, aka, Tekashi 69, aka 6ix9ine, appears at his arraignment in Manhattan Criminal Court on Wednesday, July 11, 2018.
New York Daily News/Jefferson Siegal via Getty Images
Rapper Tekashi 6ix9ine, real name Daniel Hernandez, was approved to serve the rest of his prison sentence in home confinement in court papers filed April 2.
He had cited concerns about his asthma when asking to be released. COVID-19 is a respiratory disease, and people with asthma are at higher risk from it, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Hernandez, 23, was first sentenced to 24 months in prison in December after pleading guilty to several crimes related to his involvement with the Nine Trey Gangsta Bloods gang. He's due to be released by August.
"It seems like just a matter of time before all prisons in the area are hit with the virus, both inmates and guards," Hernandez's lawyer, Lance Lazzaro, said in a letter to Judge Paul Engelmayer in March. "Mr. Hernandez has been complaining to prison officials this week of shortness of break, but apparently the warden of his facility will not allow Mr. Hernandez to go to the hospital despite the recommendation of the facility's medical director that Mr. Hernandez be treated by a doctor at a hospital."
In a Monday, April 16, 2018 file photo, Michael Cohen, President Donald Trump's personal attorney, center, leaves federal court, in New York.
AP Photo/Mary Altaffer
President Donald Trump's former lawyer, Michael Cohen, requested in March to either be released early or serve the remainder of his three-year prison sentence in home confinement, citing concerns about the coronavirus.
His request was initially denied by Judge William H. Pauley III, who said it was "just another effort to inject himself into the news cycle."
But on April 16, Cohen's lawyer told CNN that the federal Bureau of Prisons notified Cohen on Thursday that he would be released early. The exact release date is unknown.
Spokespersons from the BOP and US attorney's office in Manhattan declined to comment to CNN about Cohen's potential release.
Cohen, who started his prison sentence in 2019 after pleading guilty to tax, bank, and campaign finance crimes, is officially scheduled to be released in November 2021.
Michael Avenatti, attorney for porn actress Stormy Daniels, talks to reporters outside federal court in Los Angeles, Tuesday, Jan. 22, 2019.
AP Photo/Brian Melley
Michael Avenatti, who was convicted of trying to extort Nike, asked a judge in March if he could be released to home confinement.
A court motion seen by Fox News said Avenatti's cellmate at New York's Metropolitan Correctional Center experienced flu-like symptoms.
Avenatti, 49, also had pneumonia last year, which could put him at a higher risk for COVID-19, his lawyer, H. Dean Steward said.
"He is part of the general population incarcerated under unsanitary and disease-prone conditions," Steward said.
Avenatti has not been sentenced in his case and is in prison awaiting his sentencing hearing.
Bernie Madoff.
Mario Tama/Getty Images
A lawyer for 81-year-old Bernie Madoff, who's serving a 150-year sentence for running a $17.5 billion Ponzi scheme, is calling for all at-risk prisoners to be released because of the novel coronavirus, including his client.
"The federal prison system has consistently shown an inability to respond to major crises," Madoff's attorney Brandon Sample told the Associated Press in March. "My concerns are even more amplified for prisoners at federal medical centers and those who are aged."
Madoff, who has terminal kidney disease, asked last month to be released early so he could have time with his family while still alive.
In this June 6, 2019, file photo, singer R. Kelly pleaded not guilty to 11 additional sex-related felonies during a court hearing before Judge Lawrence Flood at Leighton Criminal Court Building in Chicago.
E. Jason Wambsgans/Chicago Tribune via AP
Lawyers for R. Kelly, who is in a Chicago federal jail awaiting trail on child photography and other charges, said the R&B singer's life is at risk because the facility has put in few precautions in place to prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus.
According to CBS News, the 53-year-old's lawyers filed court papers in March saying sanitizer and soap are limited at Chicago's Metropolitan Correctional Center, and two-men cells make social distancing difficult.
"The health risk to Mr. Kelly, because of his age and existing health issues, especially considering the conditions at the MCC, necessitates his release on bail," Kelly's lawyers said in the filing. The filing did not detail Kelly's heath issues.
A judge denied Kelly's request on April 7, according to court papers seen by Insider. The judge said Kelly had "not established compelling reasons warranting his release."
According to court documents seen by Business Insider, lawyers say McFarland is at a higher risk of developing sever symptoms or dying from COVID-19 because he has "extreme" allergies and asthma.
The federal prison where McFarland is serving his sentence is FCI Elkton, a low-security prison in Ohio where 39 people have tested positive and six inmates have already died from COVID-19.
Bill Johnson, a US congressman representing Ohio, called Elkton "a breeding ground" for the virus, and inmates have voiced concerns about the facility's conditions.
Martin Shkreli.
Shkreli, a biotech entrepreneur serving seven years in prison for defrauding investors out of $10 million, asked to be temporarily released for three months in an 11-page scientific paper posted on his pharmaceutical company's website.
He argues that a three-month furloughed release would allow him to help develop a cure for COVID-19, which has killed thousands of people across the world.
"As a successful two-time biopharma entrepreneur, having purchased multiple companies, invented multiple new drug candidates, filed numerous INDs and clinical trial applications, I am one of the few executives experienced in ALL aspects of drug development from molecule creation and hypothesis generation, to preclinical assessments and clinical trial design/target engagement demonstration, and manufacturing/synthesis and global logistics and deployment of medicines," the statement read.
Shkreli's attorney, Benjamin Brafman, told Newsweek that he plans to formally request a furloughed release soon.
"Mr. Shkreli has prepared a coronavirus research proposal, which, if accurate could help scientists and doctors better understand how to deal with the coronavirus that is killing so many people," he said. "We will be requesting a three-month furlough so that he could do his research in a laboratory under strict supervision."
Bill Cosby pictured in 2018.
REUTERS/Jessica Kourkounis
In a statement sent to Insider, Bill Cosby's spokesman, Andrew Wyatt, said that his client is blind and that he's concerned for the 82-year-old's health.
He said because of Cosby's old age and blindness, he relies on other prisoners and correction officers regularly who could put him at risk if they contract COVID-19.
Cosby's lawyers have yet to file an official motion asking for his release, but Wyatt said they are considering asking for him to be placed under house arrest.
"Mr. Cosby has not been tested for the virus — but is feeling fine — other than being blind and his blood pressure spiking at times," Wyatt said.
Agustin Huneeus.
John Tlumacki/The Boston Globe via Getty Images
Agustin Huneeus Jr., a Napa Valley vintner who was sentenced to five months in prison in the college admissions scandal in October, was released early over concerns about the coronavirus.
According to the Los Angeles Times, Huneeus was released two weeks early. A judge cited "unique health circumstances" in approving his request to be released, the LA Times reported.
He will serve the remainder of his sentence in home confinement.
Devin Sloane.
AP Photo/Elise Amendola
Devin Sloane, the founder and chief executive of a drinking water and wastewater systems business in Los Angeles, California, who was also sentenced in the college admissions scandal, had requested early release because of the coronavirus but was denied.
Judge District Judge Indira Talwani said in her ruling seen by the Los Angeles Times that Sloane had not exhausted all other avenues of securing early release, nor did he have a "life-threatening condition."
Sloane's sentence ended on April 1.
