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Judge Shields Says Pagartanis in MDC Must
Exhaust Remedies While Judge Castel Urges
Practical Solution
By Matthew
Russell Lee, Patreon
BBC
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EDNY, April 3 –
When Magistrate Judge
Anne Y. Shields of the U.S.
District Court for the
Southern District of New York
heard the request of
Steven Pagartanis, sentenced
to 170 months in prison for
multi-million dollar
securities fraud scheme
targeting mostly elderly
investors, to be freed due to
Coronavirus in the MDC in
Brooklyn, it did not take
long.
Pagartanis'
lawyer Kevin Keating
acknowledged that his client
had not exhausted his
administrative remedies; he
did not try to make the
arguments against the MDC
required for freedom under for
example SDNY Judge Paul A.
Engelmayer's decision in USA
v. Credidio. Judge Shields
said, I am
denying
relief.
It is a
pattern, on
both sides of
the East
River.
Kushtrim Demaj is
serving one year and one day
after a cocaine conviction.
But on April 2 amid the
Coronavirus pandemic his
lawyer Jeff Cabrowe argued for
his early release before U.S.
District Court for the
Southern District of New York
Judge Andrew L. Carter.
Things did
not go well.
Judge
Carter quickly asserted the
need to exhaust administrative
remedies under the First Step
Act, an issue confronted by
many SDNY judges, see below.
Chabrowe asked if he should
apply directly to the MDC
Warden; Judge Carter replied,
I'm not going to tell you how
to do your job.
And with
that it was over, in a mere
ten minutes. Inner City Press
was the only media covering
it, as also the case below.
This one is US v. Demaj,
16-cr-289 (Carter).
James
Woodson is a 56-year old
inmate in the Metropolitan
Correctional Center who has
been seeking compassionate
release under the First Step
Act. But the Bureau of Prisons
has yet to rule in any way on
his requests. Does he have to
wait?
On April 1
Woodon's Federal Defender
Sarah Baumgartel asked U.S.
District Court for the
Southern District of New York
Judge P. Kevin Castel to
"immediately grant Mr.
Woodson's motion to reduce his
sentence, and re-sentence him
to time served," with eight
months of home confinement
during a three year term of
supervised release.
Assistant US Attorney Louis
Pellegrino countered with a
decision by SDNY Judge Denise
Cote in US v. Monzon,
99-cr-157, that the claimed
statutory exhaustion
requirement must be "strictly
enforced."
Judge Castel reserved
judgment, indicating he would
be preparing a legal ruling
but urging AUSA Pellegrino to
find a practical solution, in
the form of a decision by the
Bureau of Prisons. Inner City
Press will continue to follow
this case. It is US v.
Woodson, 18-cr-845 (Castel).
***
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