| In PPP Case
Apocalypse Bella Wants to Suppress ID by
Witness He Thrice Met Others May Settle
By Matthew
Russell Lee, Patreon
BBC
- Guardian
UK - Honduras
- ESPN
SDNY COURTHOUSE,
Nov 15 – In a Paycheck
Protection Program fraud
prosecution of Apocalypse
Bella, Mackenzy Toussaint and
others, a defense lawyer is
being summoned to New York,
seemingly to be fired by the
judge.
On
September 8 U.S. District
Court for the Southern
District of New York Judge
Paul A. Engelmayer held a
proceeding. Inner City Press
covered it, below.
On
November 15 Judge Engelmayer
held another status
conference, and Inner City
Press again covered it. Now
while Bella is going forward
with his bid to suppress the
identification, by a witness
whom the AUSA says met him
three times in business
meetings, his co-defendants
were described as engaged in
plea negotiations.
Judge
Engelmayer has set a trial
date - May 9, 2022 - and
another conference for all
remaining defendants, Feb 15
at 2 pm. But Bella should have
a suppression hearing before
then. Inner City Press will
continue reporting:
#CourtCaseCast.
Toussaint's
lawyer Bret Martin, who said
his Texas office is 15 minutes
from where Toussaint lives,
had missed the prior
proceeding.
He cited a
medical procedure for his
daughter, but was asked why he
had not contacted the court,
or arranged to get the
transcript of the proceeding
that he missed.
Eventually he was
ordered to come to New York
with his client on September
15, in person, and to be
prepared to discusses his
retainer agreement.
Docketed on
September 15 was Martin's mea
culpa declaration, including
"I clearly provided my Client
a disservice at the beginning
of this case... We both intend
to appear in front of the
Honorable Judge Engelmayer to
speak more directly regarding
the lack of attention and
prioritization of these matter
and attempting to get this
case back on the right track."
On September 15
counsel for Apocalypse Bella
informed Judge Engelmayer that
Bella intends to move to
suppress the identification of
June 16, 2021, saying that a
witness was shown six photos,
for less than three seconds
each."
Now on September
21, the Office of the US
Attorney has responded with
their description of the
process: six photos in a
binder, Bella and five
"comparators." They says
Bella's photo did not "so
[stand] out from all the other
photographs as to suggest to
an identifying witness that
[the accused] was more likely
to the culprit," citing the US
v. Williams decision in
2014 by SDNY Judge Jesse M.
Furman.
On September 29,
the deadline to produce
discovery, the US wrote in to
ask for more time to produce
discovery from two laptops and
a phone belonging to
Toussaint, until October 18.
Watch this site.
The case is US v.
Bella, et al., 21-cr-247
(Engelmayer)
***
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