Is the District Court empowered to stay the civil proceedings in favor of the criminal proceedings?
Yes. The Supreme Court has indicated that a district court may stay civil proceedings in favor of a criminal trial “when the interests of justice seem to require such action.” Kordel, 397 U.S. at 12, n.27 (1970). Because adverse inferences may be drawn in a civil case from the assertion of Fifth Amendment rights, see Baxter v. Palmigiano, 425 U.S. 308 (1976), the court may stay the civil action until the criminal matter is resolved. See SEC v. Dresser Industries, Inc., 628 F.2d 1368, 1376 (D.C. Cir.), cert. denied, 449 U.S. 993 (1980) (“[A] noncriminal proceeding, if not deferred, might undermine the party’s fifth amendment privilege against self-incrimination.”); Dienstag v. Bronsen, 49 F.R.D. 327, 329 (S.D.N.Y. 1970) (civil discovery stayed because necessary to protect defendant’s Fifth Amendment privilege against self incrimination); United States v. A Certain Parcel of Land, 781 F. Supp. 830, 834 (D.N.H. 1992) (discovery stayed in civil forfeiture action because protective order wo
