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By Matthew Russell Lee, Scoop Patreon, Scope

SDNY COURTHOUSE, Jan 27 – After Jeffrey Epstein reportedly committed suicide in the Metropolitan Correctional Center now on November 25 a trial date of April 20 was set for two MCC officers Tova Noel and Michael Thomas by U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York Judge Analisa Torres.

  Afterward Inner City Press asked Thomas' lawyer Montel Figgins if he thought his client is a scapegoat. Yes, Figgins answered quickly, in the hall outside the Courtroom 15D of 500 Pearl Street. He said "the whole system had to fail."

  Inner City Press asked Figgins about the employment status of his client. Figgins said for Thomas, and presumably Tova Noel whose lawyer Jason Foy said she could not long carry her gun, termination had not occurred due to the union.

 Now on January 27 for Noel Foy has requested a postponement of trial until October: "On November 25, 2019, during the initial status conference the Court scheduled the above referenced criminal action for trial to commence on April 20, 2020. I am requesting that the trial date be postponed to sometime in October or a date thereafter that is convenient for the Court. The adjournment is necessary to ensure that Ms. Noel receives adequate and effective assistance of counsel. The postponement of the trial will allow for the defense to review voluminous discovery and conduct a defense investigation of the case. On November 22, 2019, I informed the Government that I would provide them with a hard drive during the November 25, 2019 initial status conference. On November 25, 2019, I provided the Government with a hard drive for discovery and the Government informed the Court that they would produce discovery in 30 days. The Government forwarded discovery on the hard drive to my office on December 31, 2019. The discovery was received by my office on January 2, 2020. On January 4, 2020, I attempted to review the discovery and I could not access it because the Government provided the incorrect password to get access. On January 6, 2020, I was provided with the correct password and gained my first access to the discovery. The discovery contained in the initial production is 877GB of materials. The 877GB of materials contains up to 8118 Bates of global discovery and up to 20,853 Bates of individual discovery. In folder marked SDNY_00000001, there is video surveillance capturing 3 separate cameras from July 5, 2019 thru August 12, 2019. Each date allegedly contains the 24-hour period for each day, from each camera, and in 1-hour increments per individual file." We'll have more on this. And this: Britain's Prince Andrew has provided "zero cooperation" to the SDNY on Jeffrey Epstein, U.S. Attorney Geoffrey S. Bermansaid Monday. "To date, Prince Andrew has provided zero cooperation," said Berman...

  Inner City Press asks: if the dead prisoner were like most of those kept in the MCC, would anyone have been charged? We'll have more on this. More on Patreon here.

  Back on November 19 Inner City Press found a dozen MCC officers milling around on the 15th floor, in Crisis Support Team jackets. Inner City Press tweet.

At the arraignment that day Noel's lawyer Jason Foy asked that she be allowed to keep her gun for personal use. SDNY Magistrate Judge Sarah Netburn, who the day previously has also cited the safety of pre-trial services officers, denied the request saying that the PTS officers will have to enforced the conditions of release.

  While Thomas slipping out the employees' entrance with a jacket over his head, his lawyer Montel Figgins to his credit stood and delivered on Worth Street, saying that while many people make mistakes at work they don't all get charged and face jail time. Inner City Press Periscope video here. We will continue to follow this case.

From the indictment: "On or about August 10, 2019, TOVA NOEL and MICHAEL  THOMAS, the defendants, in  dereliction of their duties as  as  correctional officers at the Metropolitan Correctional Center ("MCC"), repeatedly failed to perform mandated counts of prisoners  under their watch in the MCC's Special Housing Unit ("SHU").  Instead, for substantial portions of their shifts, NOEL and THOMAS  sat at their desk, browsed the internet, and moved around the  common area of the SHU. To conceal their failure to perform their duties, NOEL and THOMAS repeatedly signed false certifications  attesting to having conducted multiple counts of inmates when, truth and in fact, they never conducted such counts. As a result  of those false statements, the MCC believed prisoners in the SHU were being regularly monitored and accounted for when, in fact, as  a result of the defendants' conduct, no correctional officer conducted any count or round of the SHU from approximately 10:30 p.m. on August 9 until approximately 6:30 a.m. on August 10, at which time, as alleged herein, NOEL and THOMAS discovered the body  of an MCC inmate, Jeffrey Epstein, who had committed suicide  overnight while unobserved." Inner City Press will have more on this - it covered the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York Magistrates Court on November 18, and also the courtroom of SDNY Judge Torres, with it lights on the blink.

Epstein's death came eleven days after Inner City Press exclusively reported irregularities at the MCC including Epstein then being allowed to use without supervision all day, every day one of the only two legal visit rooms for prisons in the Special Housing Unit of the MCC.

  Now on August 12 after the Daily News' intrepid Stephen Brown called District Judge Richard Berman's chambers on behalf of the SDNY Press Room requesting comment and was told that "Jeffrey Epstein's death is a tragedy to everyone involved in this case," several questions arise.

  Will Judge Berman, or another judge, inquire not only what happened in the hours before Epstein's death, but also the days? Why was Epstein allowed to spend so much time presumably outside of any MCC filming in the legal meeting room? Was what took place in there all legal? We'll have more on this.

   Other defense lawyers exclusively complained to Inner City Press about not being able to see on a timely basis their clients in the MCC. Now what will be done about the MCC's (lack of) supervision, including by U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York Judge Richard M. Berman?

   Epstein had shifts of lawyers purporting to meet with him all day, in a room where the other Criminal Justice Act lawyers said Epstein had access to the Internet. The CJA lawyers had to wait up to four hours to see their clients.

  "It's outrageous," one of the lawyers told Inner City Press. "El Chapo is the only other one who tried this, but he was in a special unit so it didn't impact the rest of us." More on Patreon here.

  Other child sex defendants have conditions that they cannot use the Internet. They are also supervised, especially but not only when on suicide watch. But with Epstein paying lawyers to meet with him all day in the MCC, he was allowed to use the 'Net and presumably more.

Inner City Press will continue to cover this and other SDNY and 2nd Circuit cases - watch this site, and there is more on Patreon, here.