| Dramatist Pivnik Who Bragged
Of Sharing 11 Year Old Boy Moving Sentencing
Back to June 24
By Matthew
Russell Lee, Exclusive Patreon
SDNY COURTHOUSE,
May 3 – A thirty year old man
accused by the government of
distributing pornographic
images of infants and bragging
that he was grooming an 11
year old boy had been freed on
bond to his mother's house in
Freehold, New Jersey, as
exclusively reported by Inner
City Press.
On
September 3 Bryan Pivnik's
pre-trial freedom was ended by
U.S. District Court for the
Southern District of New York
Judge P. Kevin Castel.
The next
day in the public docket was a
trial set for January 28,
2020. On January 16, this was
listed in PACER:
"19-cr-00464-PKC-1 USA v.
Pivnick Pretrial
ConferenceMatthew Daniel Myers
representing Bryan Pivnick
(Defendant) Thomas John Wright
representing USA (Plaintiff)
."
But when
Inner City Press went, Pivnick
was not there. Inner City
Press was politely told that
Pivnick had pleaded guilty. A
check of the docket found
non-live links to a change of
plea proceeding, a "redacted
transcript" and no sentencing
date.
Now in May
2020, the sentencing is being
moved further back: "Re:
United States v. Bryan
Pivnick, 19 CR 464 (PKC) Dear
Judge Castel, The Government
writes to respectfully request
on behalf of the parties a
further adjournment of the
sentencing currently scheduled
for May 20, 2020 to June 24,
2020 at 2:30 PM, a date and
time that the parties
understand is convenient to
the Court, and a corresponding
extension of the deadlines by
which to make sentencing
submissions, for the defendant
from May 6, 2020 to June 10,
2020 and for the Government
from May 13, 2020 to June 17,
2020. The parties again make
this joint request in light of
the national emergency
declared over the coronavirus
pandemic, the ongoing
restrictions resulting from
that national emergency on
counsel’s access to certain
materials, and the
public-health mandate amidst
that national emergency to
postpone public events, where
possible and appropriate in
light of all of the
circumstances." Inner City
Press will stay on this case.
Back on
November 14 with in the
courtroom gallery Pivnick's
mother and step-father, Inner
City Press and the mother of
the child at issue, Judge
Castel denied Pivnick's motion
to suppress his pre-arrest
statement. Judge Castel said
there was no way Pivnick, in
his own apartment, was subject
to a custodian interview
requiring the reading of
Miranda rights.
Then Judge
Castel denied Pivnick's notion
concerning his phone, find
among other things exigent
circumstances: Pivnick could
have deleted the Telegram app
on his phone. (This happened
recently in a 911 health care
information fraud mass
indictment: a defendant asked
for his phone to look for a
contact, and deleted his
WhatsApp and all the messages
on it).
So now,
the trial. Inner City Press
will continue to cover this
case.
Back
on September 3, Pivnik arrived
for a pre trial conference, as
in July, in a blue blazer
accompanied by his mother and
step father. His lawyer
Matthew Myers had filed a
motion to suppress his cell
phone with child pornography
and boasts of grooming on it.
Myers asked that the
government not respond yet to
his motion, since he has a
mitigation brief pending.
Then it
turned. Pivnik has tested
positive for meth, five days
after the last conference in
the case at which as on
September 3 Inner City Press
was the only media present.
Myers
tried to focus on the chain of
custody of Pivnik's urine,
sent to an outside lab after
the person administered the
test found that the sample was
cold, and not as expected
warm.
Judge
Castel grew frustrated at the
urine argument, and then began
to ask about the underlying
complaint, which Inner City
Press covered at the time of
presentment in the SDNY
Magistrates Court. Pivnik
bragged he was grooming the 11
year old brother of his
boyfriend James.
Myers,
perhaps sensing the danger to
his client, said that James'
mother Geraldine Chapman was
at the presentment in the Mag
Court. That was true - but as
Inner City Press remembers is,
Ms. Chapman while praising
Pivnik for his work on a
musical drama said she would
never again allow her younger
son to see him.
As Judge
Castel read from the
complaint, including
interpreting "hee hee" as a
devilish laugh, an SDNY Court
Security Officer came in, then
another. Clearly, remand was
now a possibility.
Finally
Judge Castel asked for final
arguments from Assistant US
Attorney Thomas John Wright,
who asked for remand, and
Myers, who said he had no more
to say. Then after a
silence in which Castel
flipped through papers, the
decision was reached: remand.
The two
Court Security Officers
surrounded Pivnik. As another
case, that of Craig Smith
represented by Bennett
Epstein, was called the CSOs
allowed Pivnik to hug his
mother, who was crying. He sat
in the back until two U.S.
Marshals arrived. He took off
his blazer.
More on
Patreon here.
On May 30
Bryan Pivnick
was brought in
foot shackles
before SDNY Magistrate
Judge James L.
Cott after 6
pm. Assistant
US Attorney
Thomas Wright,
who later
confirmed the
spelling of Pivnick's
name to Inner
City Press,
argued for detention.
He
described
Telegram
messages on February
10, 2019 in which
Pivnick said
he was "getting
close to the
11 y/o bro"
of his
boyfriend. The
same 11
year old was
found in
Pivnick's
apartment when
he was
arrested.
The
next
proceeding
will be
sentencing.
Inner City
Press and @SDNYLIVE aim to be there.
***
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