Irish authorities failed to extradite a paedophile even though his case was on the US ambassador's watchlist of important US cases in Ireland, a prosecutor told a California court in a sworn declaration last week.
The man, a Californian family doctor, later fled from Ireland and was arrested in Uruguay earlier this month. The court heard that Irish authorities took so long working on the extradition papers that the district attorney's office in Salinas, California, believed Irish officials had lost two extradition requests for James Daly, who had fled to Dublin on an Irish passport.
In correspondence, deputy district attorney Stephanie Hulsey complained to the US justice department that Irish authorities appeared to be ignoring the extradition request. Daly (64) was convicted in April of 10 counts of sexually abusing a 10-year-old girl and fled the US as the jury was reaching its verdict.
In a declaration made to a court in Salinas Ms Hulsey said she had sent a 75-page extradition request to Irish authorities on May 14th including her own affidavit laying out the facts, procedural history and law in the Daly case.
The victim also had to prepare an affidavit and have it notarised. The Irish authorities also wanted information about notary publics in California and Maryland, where the victim lived, as well as information about US perjury statutes.
Ms Hulsey heard nothing back from the Irish authorities and in July contacted Tressa Borland, a trial attorney at the US department of justice's office of international affairs, asking if the Irish authorities had lost two extradition requests - one from her office, and another from the state of Washington.
She was told the Irish Department of Justice was reviewing the case. She heard back from Ms Borland that the Irish had not lost the extradition request but said that "it's just how long they take". Ms Borland told her that an Irish Department of Justice solicitor had been assigned to review the extradition request.
Ms Borland travelled to Ireland on August 30th to try to hurry up the extradition process and told Ms Hulsey that the extradition request was on the US ambassador to Ireland's watchlist of important US cases.
Irish attorneys assured Ms Borland that the extradition request was valid and would move forward. However, at the same meeting, they requested supplemental information. Ms Hulson said that when she heard about this, she prepared a supplemental extradition package of approximately 15 pages and forwarded it to the US department of justice's office of international affairs to pass on to Irish authorities.
A spokeswoman for the Department of Justice said it did not comment on individual cases. However, she said there were a number of reasons why an extradition request might fail, including problems with extradition papers. Of 12 extradition requests made to the Department by the US since 1999, five had failed, five had been processed and two had been jettisoned because the suspect had fled the country.