Real Cases · Real Outcomes

This is what hope looks like.

Behind every case number is a person, and a family waiting. These are some of the people the Defendant Aid Society has been privileged to stand beside — and the years of freedom we have helped return to families.

Restitution · Litigation & Settlement

Jacob Dalton: a $50,000 head start on a new life

U.S. District Court, District of Utah United States v. Dalton · Case 2:24-cr-302-JNP · May 29, 2026

Most people leaving federal custody walk out with nothing. Jacob was facing worse: the government had moved to take everything. He owed substantial restitution — which he had been paying and fully intended to keep paying — but when a settlement came his way, prosecutors moved to garnish all of it, down to the last dollar. Jacob was set to begin home confinement with nothing at all to rebuild on.

DAS found the opening. We helped Jacob research and draft the pro se filings to challenge the garnishment and its legality, asking the court to let him keep a modest amount to restart his life. The filings put real pressure on the government. As Jacob described it afterward, prosecutors told him his motion would be “extremely hard to beat,” and rather than fight it, they came to the table. They opened at $25,000. He held out. The judge signed off, and Jacob secured $50,000 to keep.

“$50k was the goal,” he said when it was done, “and we got it.” Instead of starting his reentry with empty hands, Jacob begins it with a real foundation under his feet.

Outcome$50,000 preserved from garnishment — turning an empty-handed reentry into a real financial head start as Jacob began home confinement.

§ 2241 Habeas · First Step Act Credits

Rudolph Puana: 10 months the BOP tried to erase — restored

U.S. District Court, District of Colorado Puana v. Williams · Case 24-cv-01088-CNS · Granted December 2, 2024

Rudolph began serving his federal sentence in September 2022, then sat nearly ten months in holdover transit before reaching his designated facility. The Bureau of Prisons refused to credit any of his First Step Act program participation during that stretch, insisting his earned-time clock didn’t start until he physically arrived — effectively erasing ten months of his life.

DAS spotted the error, told Rudolph he had a real claim and should bring it, and drafted every one of his administrative-remedy filings — the exhaustion groundwork without which a habeas petition goes nowhere. Rudolph filed his § 2241 petition pro se. The court agreed with him completely: under the plain text of the First Step Act, his eligibility began the day his sentence commenced, not the day he reached a particular prison.

The judge ordered the BOP to recalculate his credits back to September 2022 — handing Rudolph back nearly ten months of earned time the government had refused to recognize, and moving his freedom that much closer.

OutcomeThe court ordered the BOP to restore ~10 months of First Step Act earned-time credit — correcting Rudolph’s release timeline in his favor.

§ 2255 · Career-Offender Challenge

Daniel Javier: sentence reduced by 60 months

U.S. District Court, Southern District of California United States v. Javier · Case 3:18-cr-04609 · June 21, 2024

Daniel was serving 15 years — 180 months — built on a Career Offender enhancement, a designation meant for hardened, repeat career criminals that is applied far too broadly. He had landed there on the advice of a lawyer who spent barely an hour on his entire case. The label cost him years he never should have served.

This was not a quick fix; it was a years-long commitment. DAS stood with Daniel through the long work of building and filing a pro se motion under 28 U.S.C. § 2255 challenging the enhancement — researching, drafting, and refusing to let the case stall. That motion created the leverage that changed everything. Through appointed counsel, Daniel ultimately reached a settlement with the United States that cut his sentence from 180 months to 120 months.

The five years we helped erase weren’t theoretical. With the reduction, Daniel qualified to transfer to a halfway house almost immediately — walking toward home years ahead of the release date he had been facing.

Outcome180 months reduced to 120 — five years cut, and an immediate halfway-house transfer years ahead of his projected release.

§ 2241 Habeas · First Step Act Credits

Dale Lounsbury: home the moment the BOP read the petition

U.S. District Court, District of Colorado Lounsbury v. Williams · Case 1:22-cv-01911-LTB · Filed August 1, 2022

Dale was a first-time, non-violent inmate at FCI Englewood who had already paid full restitution and kept a spotless disciplinary record. He had earned his First Step Act time credits and done everything the law asked — but prison officials simply refused to apply them, holding him past the point the law allowed.

DAS helped Dale prepare and file a pro se § 2241 habeas petition in federal court. The filing was so clearly correct that it didn’t even need a hearing: upon receiving notice of the petition, the BOP applied his credits and released him, and the case was dismissed as moot. Dale went home — on the timeline the law had guaranteed him all along.

His case did more than free him. It became the template for at least five other Englewood inmates who filed their own pro se petitions to correct their sentences.

OutcomeReleased as soon as the BOP received the petition — and a roadmap that freed others behind him.

CARES Act · Home Confinement & § 3582

Charles Parke: home roughly 10 years early

U.S. District Court, District of Montana United States v. Parke · Case 2:08-cr-00024-BMM · Released September 28, 2021

In 2009 Charles was sentenced to 262 months — nearly 22 years — under federal drug laws that have since changed so dramatically that today he would likely face less than half that time. At FCI Terminal Island during the COVID-19 outbreak, he was precisely the medically vulnerable, non-violent inmate the CARES Act was built to protect, living with conditions including a double heart-valve replacement. The warden denied his home-confinement request three times.

DAS refused to take no for an answer. We carried Charles through the Administrative Remedy Process — all the way to two appeals at the Regional Office — and won him home confinement. We then helped him secure compassionate release outright.

Charles came home in September 2021 — roughly ten years before the sentence would have released him. A decade the law would have taken was given back.

OutcomeHome confinement secured after three prior denials, then compassionate release — bringing Charles home about 10 years early from a 262-month sentence.

§ 3582 · Compassionate Release

Albert Gaitan: out of prison in under a week

U.S. District Court, Southern District of California United States v. Gaitan · Case 18-cr-4662-BAS · Granted June 25, 2020

Albert was a non-violent, first-time offender at FCI Terminal Island with multiple serious heart conditions the court already knew about at sentencing. When COVID-19 tore through the facility, he caught the virus and went more than two months with almost no medical care — despite his family and outside doctors pleading for help.

Through an inmate volunteer, Albert reached DAS. We researched his case, assembled his medical records, and helped him draft and file a pro se motion for compassionate release under 18 U.S.C. § 3582. Anyone who has worked these motions knows how rare this next part is: the judge granted release within a week of receiving it.

Albert walked out of a facility that had nearly cost him his life — alive, free, and home with his family.

OutcomeCompassionate release granted in under a week — an extraordinary turnaround that got a gravely ill man out of a deadly outbreak and home.

Where We Began

The cases that became a calling

Oregon defendants and families after acquittal — Portland, Oregon — where all seven trial defendants were acquitted, 2016.

Nevada defense team after dismissal — Las Vegas, Nevada — where the indictment was dismissed with prejudice, 2018.

Federal Trials · The Origin of DAS

Born from one family’s fight — proven in two of the hardest cases in America

U.S. District Courts, District of Oregon & District of Nevada Malheur Refuge prosecution (2016) · Bunkerville prosecution (2018)

The Defendant Aid Society did not begin with a famous case. It began with a family. When our founders faced the federal government themselves, they learned firsthand what it means to fight a prosecution that will not stop — a fight that continues nearly twenty years later, and in which DAS stands to this day. Read our founders’ story →

It was in the middle of that struggle that the call came. Our founders were asked to help defend the men and women charged in the first trial arising from the 2016 occupation of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in Oregon, and soon after to lend the same help in the related Nevada prosecution from the 2014 Bunkerville standoff. These became the first cases of the work that would formally become the Defendant Aid Society.

The results were historic. In Oregon, a federal jury acquitted all seven defendants who went to trial on the central conspiracy charge. In Nevada, after the defense pressed relentlessly, Chief Judge Gloria Navarro dismissed the indictment with prejudice for the government’s willful suppression of evidence — a ruling the Ninth Circuit upheld. (Later trials in both matters, in which DAS was not involved, did not reach the same result.)

The verdicts were incredible victories — but the real credit belongs to the defendants, ordinary men and women who chose to stand and fight when surrender would have been easier and the odds were nearly impossible, and to every member of the extraordinary defense teams who stood beside them. We were honored to play a key part in that effort. It revealed what this work demands, and it gave real momentum to the creation of the Defendant Aid Society — and to its purpose: to make sure no one faces that fight alone.

OutcomeFull acquittals in Oregon and a dismissal with prejudice in Nevada — the proving ground for the charity that grew out of one family’s refusal to give up.

The Daily Grind

The victories that never make headlines

The landmark cases matter. But most of our work is quieter — hundreds of smaller battles fought every year. To the person living it, a few weeks or months of freedom is everything. We believe all time matters, for every life.

Freeing an innocent man

A man sat in jail nearly a year, never visited by his overworked public defender, unsure of the charges against him. A fellow inmate contacted DAS. In the discovery we helped obtain, a volunteer found a buried police report showing his innocence — we drafted the motion to dismiss, and he was released within days.

Correcting unlawful detention

A county-jail inmate was held two months past the end of his sentence; the system no longer even listed him as an inmate, and staff didn’t believe him. Working with a DAS volunteer, he filed a motion with his sentencing judge — and regained his liberty in about four days.

Reconnecting families

After a transfer, one inmate lost all contact information and went almost a year without speaking to the grandson he was close to. DAS helped him re-establish contact. “I cannot put into words how much this means to me,” he wrote. “You can put this on the side of extremely valuable.”

Fixing FSA credit errors

First Step Act earned-time credits are routinely miscalculated or ignored by institutions. DAS helps inmates document and contest these errors — correcting release dates and, case after case, sending people home when the law says they should already be there.

Winning administrative remedies

An inmate’s ability to get relief often hinges on navigating the BOP’s administrative remedy process correctly. DAS helps inmates file and pursue these remedies — the unglamorous paperwork that frequently makes the difference between relief and denial.

Everyday communication & dignity

Through hundreds of calls, emails, and letters, DAS helps inmates and families with the basics — getting a loved one onto Corrlinks, answering questions, and offering simple human kindness to people the system has left isolated.

In Their Words

What clients tell us

“Thank you! I cannot put in words how much this means to me. My grandson and I are very close and I miss him very much. God bless you! If the day comes you are evaluating the value of your service, you can put this on the side of extremely valuable.”

John J. · Terminal Island, CA

“I really respect the fact that you guys are really trying to help people. That is the right thing to do in life, and I pray that God will bestow you and your family with blessings. Keep up the great work!”

Aaron C. · Victorville, CA

“I want to thank you in advance for your continual help with me. I am very blessed to have you in my corner.”

Tim W. · Florence, CO

“I am impressed so far. I have a great feeling about you guys, short and long term.”

Robert H. · Terminal Island, CA

The next story could be someone you love

If you or someone you care about needs help, reach out. If you believe in this work, help us continue it.

Request Help Donate