Julian Raymon Ortiz was waiting for his day in court. It had been almost a year in jail since he was arrested in November 2024, and a federal magistrate judge in Sacramento, California, ordered that he be detained until trial. Now, in October 2025, with his trial for allegedly distributing 500 grams of methamphetamine set to begin just around the corner, Ortiz was likely ready to get on with his life—for better or worse. There was just one problem: His lawyer hadn’t been paid. That fact would doom prosecutors' case against Ortiz.
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