| EDNY
Keeps Mask Mandate in Arraignment Court
But Removes Elsewhere, 2bl Standard?
By Matthew
Russell Lee, Patreon Maxwell
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BBC
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UK - Honduras
- ESPN
EDNY MAG COURT
REPORT, Sept 23 - In the
U.S. District Court for the
Eastern District of New York
on September 21, a detention
or bond proceedings was held
by Magistrate Judge Sanket J.
Bulsara on two defendants.
Inner City Press was the only
media there (though even its
phone was held down in the
lobby by Court Security
Officer, unlike the media also
covering the US v. Barrack
trial).
While
elsewhere in EDNY they
weren't, people in the Mag or
Arraignment Court were all
wearing COVID masks. This
remained the case on September
22 when Inner City Press,
still without its phone
despite checking again at the
Clerk of Court, again covered
the EDNY Mag Court.
On September 23,
this: "MARGO K. BRODIE, Chief
Judge This Court continues to
monitor the need to protect
public safety and health while
effectively administering
justice during this period of
national emergency...Face
Coverings: Individuals are
generally not required to wear
a mask unless instructed to do
so by a judicial officer in a
courtroom or adjacent areas,
e.g., a jury deliberation
room, except that all
individuals must wear a mask
in the Arraignment Courtroom."
Why is the
Arraignment Courtroom and
those in it, including
defendants, treated
differently? Several people
asked Inner City Press this,
one opining it was because
presenteees have not yet been
processed through the MDC.
Inner City Press will keep
inquiring - including for its
(in-house?) pass at EDNY. Its
EDNY coverage is not only of
trials like Roger Ng / Jho Lo
/ 1MDB and Barrack, but of
other cases, and the
Arraignment court. Watch this
site.
The September 21
case: The defendants
were Christian Caicedo and
Yhonny Alvarez Rivera, charged
with cocaine sales in NY and
NJ. Caicedo was assigned a
Federal Defender, and was
released on $50,000 bond after
Judge Bulsara spoke by phone
with his wife, a bartender,
and his aunt, who last spoke
with him in December.
Yhonny
Alvarez Rivera, assigned a CJA
and using a Spanish language
interpreter, was detained,
without prejudice to applying
at a later date for bond.
After this was decided, Judge
Bulsara asked if he'd mind be
taken back into the holding
cell, so that interpretation
was no longer needed.
The
interpreter to her credit said
she could sit behind him and
whisper, simultaneous
interpretation.
If the
Marshals agree, Judge Bulsara
said. They did.
As this
proceeding ended to move to
another, with an SDNY-based
CJA, Caicedo was given a
plastic bag of his belongings
and case, and Alvarez Rivera
was led back into the holding
cell.
Inner City
Press is covering EDNY, in
person, and has asked for the
ability give to others to
report in real time. We'll
have more on this.
This case is US
v. Caicedo and Alvarez Rivera,
22-mj-1029 (Bulsara)
Additional Inner
City Press coverage of EDNY
(Afrasiabi, Barrack, R.Kelly,
Roger Ng, Powers, and an
unsealed win before Judge
Komittee, are on its site).
***
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