In EDNY Murder For Hire
Trial of Zottola FBI Agent Is Asks
If Defendants Texted In Code
By Matthew
Russell Lee, Patreon Maxwell
book
BBC -
Honduras
- CIA
Trial book - NY
Mag
EDNY COURTHOUSE,
Sept 30 – In a large courtroom
in the U.S. District Court for
the Eastern District of New
York, Anthony Zottola, Alfred
Lopez and Himen Ross are
standing trial for the October
4, 2018 murder-for-hire of
Mafia associate Sylvester
Zottola, a.k.a. “Sally Daz,”
at a McDonalds drive-through
in the Bronx.
Inner City Press, now covering
the EDNY courthouse albeit
still not approve to bring in
phone and laptop, is covering
the trial, before District
Judge Hector Gonzalez.
For the
entire week, FBI Special
Agent Michael Zoufal has been
testifying on direct
examination about calls and
text messages. Anthony Zottola
allegedly orchestrated and
financed multiple attacks on
his father and Anthony’s
brother Salvatore Zottola
prior to the
murder.
On
September 30, it finally
turned to cross examination.
Defense lawyer Henry E.
Mazurek, whose SDNY work Inner
City Press has covered in a
number of live-reported trial,
asked Zoufal if he thought the
defendants were communicating
in code.
The FBI agent
resisted, saying that the
texts spoke for
themselves.
Mazurek
shifted to analogies, about
communications about tacos, or
one's mother. Each time the
AUSA objected, and Judge
Gonzalez said, I'll allow
it.
Inner City Press
has requested access to the
exhibits and, more
importantly, the right to
bring in its phone and laptop
like other media. Despite
asking the Office of District
Executive Eugene J. Corcoran
for nine days, it is still
waiting. Watch this
site.
***
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