Norman
Seabrook Cites Avenatti
Mistrial in Renewed Stillwell
Demand to SDNY
By Matthew
Russell Lee, Periscope
video
SDNY COURTHOUSE,
August 26 -- Before
Norman Seabrook, former head
of the NYC Corrections
Officers union, was sentenced
on February 8, 2019 by U.S.
District Court for the
Southern District of New York
Judge Alvin K. Hellerstein to
58 months in prison, a
victim's statement to the
court cited what it called
Seabrook's racist rant on
YouTube.
Afterward on Worth Street
Inner City Press asked
Seabrook about the YouTube
video - actually, an audio
file with an array of still
photographs. Seabrook
told Inner City Press they
doctored it to make him look
bad. His (actual) answer on
Periscope here
- and here
now audio file on YouTube,
here.
Now on August 26,
2021, Seabrook's lawyer has
renewed his Stillwell demand
to the US Attorney's Office,
this time citing Michael
Avenatti's mistrial in the
Central District of California
before Judge James V. Selna,
photo here. Seabrook's letter
concludes, "the sound I hear
if the proverbial 'circling of
the legal wagons' around One
St. Andrews Plaza." Watch this
site.
Back on
February 25 Seabrook's lawyer
asked for an extension of his
time to surrender to begin
serving his prison sentence
until May 3. Seabrook "has
been placed on a 'vaccination
waiting list' and is "someone
who by virtue of a) ethnicity
and (b) pre-existing pulmonary
disease, [surrender is] a
possible Eighth Amendment
violation."
Now on
March 1, the request has been
denied: "MEMO ENDORSEMENT as
to Norman Seabrook on re:
[363] To request that the
Court further postpone Norman
Seabrook's surrender date
until May 3... The request for
still another adjournment of
the surrender date is denied.
The conditions for sentencing,
discussed at the sentencing
conference, require reasonable
promptness in surrendering to
the Bureau of Prisons to begin
defendant's custodial
sentence. SO ORDERED (Signed
by Judge Alvin K. Hellerstein
on 3/1/21)."
But now on March
23: "MEMO ENDORSEMENT as to
Norman Seabrook on re: [365]
LETTER by Norman Seabrook
addressed to Judge Alvin K.
Hellerstein from Roger Bennet
Adler dated March 2, 2021 re:
Reargument / Reconsideration.
ENDORSEMENT: So ordered. My
endorsed order of March 1,
2021 (ECF No. 364) is modified
to extend Defendant's
reporting date to April 26,
2021, at 2:00 p.m., at the
facility designated by the
Bureau of Prisons, in order to
allow defendant to be
vaccinated against the Covid
virus. (Signed by Judge Alvin
K. Hellerstein on 3/23/2021)."
Watch this site.
On February
2 Seabrook filed a motion for
return of property, with Susan
Seabrook asking for $9000 cash
she was at Mohegan Sun in
2013, some of it "Applied
Toward Cosmetic Surgery."
Included are copies of the
FBI's warrant records for 1920
Muliner Avenue, The Bronx, NY.
Now on
February 23, Seabrook's lawyer
has replied stating that while
the US agrees to return "the
money seized from his pants"
it is refusing "to return the
$21,000... found within three
T.D. Bank envelopes inside a
closed safe in the Defendant's
master bedroom." We'll
continue to follow this. This
case is US v. Seabrook,
16-cr-467 (Hellerstein).
On January
27, Seabrook asked for
permission to travel for three
weeks to Florida. Now on
January 28, this: "MEMO
ENDORSEMENT as to Norman
Seabrook on re: [352] LETTER
by Norman Seabrook addressed
to Judge Lewis J. Liman from
Roger Adler dated January 27,
2021 re: Defendant Travel
Request. ENDORSEMENT: Norman
Seabrook's request to travel
to the area of Tampa, Florida,
between February 8 and 22,
2021, to stay with his
daughter is approved, on the
condition that he satisfies
all Covid-19 protocols,
including wearing masks in all
public places, provides his
precise itinerary in advance
to his probation officer, and
satisfies all conditions of
bail, including reasonable
reporting to the probation
officer. A defendant, faced
with an imminent custodial
sentence, has a legitimate
interest in spending time with
his daughter."
On November 25,
2020, the day before
Thanksgiving, Seabrook filed
with Judge Hellerstein to
avoid starting his jail
sentence in December. He cited
COVID 19, in an affidavit that
left even his age blank.
On December 3,
opposition was filed with
Judge Hellerstein, from Eric
Golub, retired NYC DOC
and Celestino P.
Monclova - with maskless
photos.
Now later
in December, Roger Bennet
Adler, attorney for Norman
Seabrook, has written in to be
informed if his clients case
was transfered to Judge Lewis
J. Liman, like that of
co-defendant Murray Huberfeld.
He say he has a motion for the
return of property.
We'll have more on this.
In the
SDNY courtroom it was
cognitive dissonance: Norman
Seabrook who rose from poverty
to head of a union with 10,000
members, who endorsed Michael
Bloomberg; Norman Seabrook who
asked for tens of thousands of
dollars to steer union money
into a Cayman Islands hedge
fund which failed.
Prosecutor
Martin Bell referred to a
Ferragamo bag visible in
Seabrook's house for months.
When Seabrook spoke he said it
was a gift with cigars, taking
a cigar out of his suit
jacket.
Seabrook's lawyer
Paul Shechtman
cited
Seabrook's
work on the
so-called
feces bill to
make throwing
excrement at a
corrections
officer a
felony. On the
hand Seabrook
was accused of
threatening
his board
members with
returning to
work in a
prison as
punishment,
and of going
after anyone
who dared run
against or
otherwise
oppose him.
Seabrook felt
that it was
his time to
get paid, that
he was bigger
than the cause
he began
fighting for,
Bell said.
Shechtman also
spoke after the sentencing.
Inner City Press asked him
about Judge
Alvin K.
Hellerstein's
seeming
reversal of an initial
position that it would be hard
to leave Seabrook out on bail
pending appeal. Shechtman
replied affably that he had to
win something, after the 58
month sentence. Video here.
An issue
on a appeal will be whether
Seabrook's second jury should
have heard about the $19
million loss.
Inner City
Press asked Shechtman about
the restitution, how much
would be paid by hedge funders
Murray Huberfeld, Jona
Rechnitz and perhaps (Judge
Hellerstein
indicated)
Jeremy Reichberg. Shechtman
told Inner City Press, If
Norman wins $19 million in the
lottery, we'll have about
that. For now, $2500 is due in
60 days, through the SDNY
Clerk, for the union. We'll
have more on this.
Exiting the courthouse after
Seabrook, with a bag of Utz
potato chips and a copy of the
Daily News was New York Knicks
icon Charles Oakley. He said
that there are others who need
to be locked up as well, and
that the Knicks need better
players. There was no
rebuttal. Periscope video here.
Upcoming in the
SDNY is a recently-filed
complaint by the Bangladesh
Central Bank for the $81
million hacking of its funds,
which were then wired through
the Federal Reserve Bank of
New York, a case
that Inner City Press will
cover. Times change. Watch
this site.
***
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