Well, unfortunately I can't be at the federal hearing before Judge Zloch involving Rothstein right-hand Debra Villegas, who is set to change her plea to guilty at 5 p.m. today.
Five p.m.? What's up with that? Seems to me the prosecutors and court are doing Villegas a solid favor by setting it up at that time. Guarantees the least possible exposure. Friday after work hours is generally considered the best time to unleash bad news because you're not going to get as vigorous media coverage over the weekend and by the time Monday rolls around people are talking about something else.
It's certainly working in the case of the Pulp, since I can't cover it. But it doesn't bother me as long as Villegas, who has already coughed up the house and Maserati that Rothstein bought her to the government, helps to produce good cases. My colleague Lisa Rab is covering the hearing, and I'm trying to arrange for a link and maybe a paragraph or two of highlight to be added to this post as soon as possible. I don't expect much, but there might be some revelations at the hearing. If it's not updated, y'all can bring the news here.
UPDATE: Due to some scheduling switcheroos (the time getting moved from 2 to 5 yesterday, and then up again at the last minute), we didn't cover the hearing, but the Sun-Sentinel's story is here, and Lisa did uncover some old Villegas quotes that seem rather cryptic in retrospect.
