| As Release Date Changed From
April 29 to June 25 SDNY Judge Berman Says
Inmates Running Asylum
By Matthew
Russell Lee, Patreon
BBC
- Guardian
UK - Honduras
- The
Source
SDNY COURTHOUSE,
April 28 – The U.S.
Bureau of Prisons amid the
Coronavirus pandemic said
inmate Jeffrey Musumeci would
be released tomorrow, April
29. Then without explanation,
even as the virus spread, they
changed it to June 25.
On April
28 U.S.
District Court
for the
Southern
District of
New York Judge
Richard Berman
asked for the
second day in
a row what
sense this
made. He
called it
arbitrary, a
case of "the
inmates
running the
asylum." Then,
nearly an hour
into the
proceeding, he
noted that
BOP's action
might take the
case out from
under the
"exhaustion of
remedies" 30
day waiting
period, since
it was in
essence an
action, a
decision.
Judge Berman
has said, in
this case and
others
including that
of Tyler Toro,
that in this
period of
pandemic he
and other
Federal judges
are doing
their most
important
work, in
conjunction
often not only
with defense
lawyers but
also some
Assistant US
Attorneys,
trying to
release those
who can be
released, to
protect them.
Inner City
Press will
continue to
cover this
cases.
The
backstory, equally important,
on this defendant: on November
29, 2005 Jeffrey Musumeci
arranged to meet at 13 year
old girl named Lisa on the
corner of Houston Street and
Avenue A on the Lower East
Side to take naked photos of
her, and more.
He thought.
In fact Lisa did
not exist and he had been
chatting over the Internet
with an undercover agent, not
unlike more recent "attempted
enticement of a minor to
engage in sexual activity"
convict Peter Bright, a (re)
trial that Inner City Press
covered, here.
Now
Musumeci, represented by
Brafman &
Associates, is seeking
compassionate release from FCI
Allenwood. U.S. District Court
for the Southern District of
New York, equally attentive to
defendants who do not have
Brafman & Associates
representing them, on April 27
held a conference which Inner
City Press
covered.
Judge Berman called a decision
to push back Musumeci's
release date from April to
June "grotesque."
He noted that in
Musumeci's case, despite the
mandatory minimum, there had
been no actual victim (the
same is true for Peter
Bright).
He urged the
Assistant US Attorney, who
raised a prohibition on
release of those convicted of
sex crimes in these
circumstances, to return with
information from the Warden at
Allenwood. Inner City Press
intends to continue to cover
this and other similar cases.
This one is US v. Musumeci,
07-cr-402 (Berman).
***
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