SAN DIEGO, CA – Following his arrest in Mexico last week, and subsequent transfer to a San Diego jail, Stephen Michael Cohen appeared in court last Friday, where he was ordered to face the $65 million judgment entered against him in April of 2001. Cohen was ordered to pay the $65 million to Gary Kremen as restitution for stealing the domain sex.com from the California-based entrepreneur.Cutting a weary and unkempt figure in his Dept. of Corrections-issued white jumpsuit, Cohen requested a court appointed lawyer, and said that he hoped to resolve the issue soon, according to an account published in the San Diego Union-Tribune.
During his request for court-appointed counsel, Cohen claimed economic hardship; “I don’t have a lot of financial wherewithal,” Cohen told the court, an argument that had been made earlier in the brief hearing by a defense attorney temporarily representing Cohen for the hearing.
Judge Leo S. Papas was not swayed by Cohen’s claims of impoverishment, however, and replied “I think you’ll find some disagreement on that from some quarters”.
Papas denied Cohen’s bail request, and ordered that he be sent up the road to San Jose, where he will appear before Judge James Ware – the same judge who presided over the case which resulted in the $65 million judgment against Cohen.
Further details of Cohen’s arrest have been made available, as well. His arrest apparently precipitated from the recent arrest of his daughter, Jhuliana Cohen, on charges of attempting to smuggle marijuana into the US from Mexico. Following her arrest, immigration agents learned of her father’s outstanding arrest warrant, and contacted Mexican authorities, who then began to search for him.
It was soon discovered that Cohen was living in a penthouse apartment in Tijuana’s pricey Chapultepec district. It wasn’t until Cohen personally applied for a residency permit, though, that he was arrested and extradited to the US.
When Cohen divorced Jhuliana’s mother, Rosa Cohen, he lost his right to remain in Mexico as her husband, and had to renew his residency permit. He could have paid a lawyer $100 to handle the application process at the immigration office, but instead chose to appear personally. Mexican and US agents, acting on tips from investigators and lawyers for Kremen, were lying in wait at the immigration office, where they arrested him, and transferred him to the San Ysidro border crossing to be handed over to US officials.
After Judge Papas denied him bail, Cohen asked for a few days in San Diego’s federal jail before being sent to San Jose, saying that he had an attorney trying to negotiate a settlement in the case.
Papas declined, giving Cohen the extra time in the San Diego jail, but said it’s possible the marshals would not immediately move him north to San Jose.
