Allison Mack let her driver’s license expire. And her attorneys have asked the judge to help her get it back by releasing her passport for a day.
Perhaps it is to be expected that she forgot to renew her license, since, while under home arrest, as she has been for more than a year, she’s had little opportunity to drive anywhere.
So she let it lapse. That may have been rather stupid. But undoubtedly she is undergoing immense stress, fear, regret and perhaps, as was reported by a friend, a mental breakdown.
As a condition of her $5 million bail package, Allison must remain at her parent’s home in Los Alamitos, California and wear an ankle monitor. She needs permission from her pretrial supervisor to leave home, which she is permitted to do to work, go to school, church, or for medical or psychiatric help.
It is not known if she has availed herself of any of these.
The lapse of her driver’s license presents a serious problem in the USA where people usually must have a government-issued ID to travel.
Because she was indicted [and subsequently pleaded guilty], Allison had to surrender her passport. She had no other form of government-issued ID other than her driver’s license which expired in July.
She now stands as a virtual outcast in American society – not because she was indicted and convicted – but because she has no government-issued ID. She cannot travel by airplane or even train without such ID.
This will make it hard for her to leave her home in California to travel to her sentencing in Brooklyn. She cannot drive there either since she has no valid license.
Perhaps one of her fans could drive her, or she could take a bus.
The bus is the only remaining way for poor people, bereft of ID, to travel in police state America.
Here is the August 5th letter Mack’s lawyers, William F. McGovern and Sean S. Buckley, wrote to Judge Nicholas G. Garaufis asking for help in getting Allison’s driver’s license reinstated.
Dear Judge Garaufis:
We write respectfully on behalf of our client, Allison Mack, to request the Court’s
permission for the release of Ms. Mack’s passport for a one-day period for the sole purpose of applying for a new government-issued LD. Ms. Mack’s driver’s license expired on July 29,2018, and without her passport, she does not have a valid form of identification.
In order to obtain such identification, Ms. Mack needs to show her passport to the officials at the California Department of Motor Vehicles as proof of her identity.
We have conferred with the government and pretrial services who have no objection to this application.
If the above request is granted, Ms. Mack’s New York-based Pretrial Services Officer, Michael Dom, will send Ms. Mack’s passport to her local Pretrial Services Officer, Kristina Jannich.
On a day agreed upon by both Ms. Mack and Officer Jannich, Ms. Mack will pick up her passport from Officer Jannich, travel to and attend her appointment at the DMV Office in downtown Los Angeles, located at 3615 S Hope St, Los Angeles, CA 90007, and return the passport to Officer Jannich at the conclusion of her appointment.
As usual, Ms. Mack will be subject to electronic monitoring throughout the day.
We appreciate the Court’s consideration of this request and, as always, are available to answer any questions the Court may have.
[cc:] All counsel of Record
PTS Officer Kristina Jannich (via email)
PTS Office Michael Dom (via email)
Respectfully yours,
Judge Garaufis made it easier for Allison Mack to get her license back. It is unclear if she will get to use it very much before she heads off to federal prison.
William F. McGovern
Sean S. Buckley
***
Allison Mack is confined to her parent’s home and must wear an ankle monitor.
We are happy to report that Judge Garaufis approved Allison’s request on the same day.
So Allison’s New York pretrial supervisor will send her passport to her pretrial supervisor in California and then Allison, wearing as always her ankle monitor, will pick it up, go to the DMV, get her license reinstated and return her passport to her California pretrial supervisor, who will then send it back to her New York pretrial supervisor.
And Allison will have the necessary ID to travel to her sentencing.
At present there is no date fixed for that sentencing. We expect it will be sometime in October or November, 2019.
