| Accused Oxy Nurse Was Freed
in Mag Court Now Stands Trial With Shaky
Clinic Video
By Matthew
Russell Lee, Patreon
BBC
- Guardian
UK - Honduras
- The
Source
SDNY COURTHOUSE,
March 12 – Back on July 8, the
US Attorney's Office for the
SDNY announced that "Audrey
Strauss, the Acting United
States Attorney for the
Southern District of New
York... announced today the
unsealing of a criminal
Complaint in Manhattan federal
court charging PURIFICACION
CRISTOBAL, a nurse
practitioner who operated a
medical clinic in the Bronx,
New York, with illegally
distributing large quantities
of oxycodone. CRISTOBAL
was taken into custody this
morning and is expected to be
presented before Magistrate
Judge Sarah Netburn later
today."
Inner City
Press, which covers the SDNY,
immediately called in to the
CourtCall line since the
Magistrates Court has been
closed for months. But the
case that was on was not on
Cristobal / Oxy.
First it
was a Mr. Watson, no press
release by SDNY, who wanted to
be released on bond.
Denied.
Then
it was Mr. Scott, "in the
courthouse," also
detained.
Finally past 6:30 pm on the
same line, oxy nurse Cristobal
was presented. A bail package
had been agreed to, and her
relative was outside the
courthouse to drive her
home. It may be
the difference between violent
crime and non violent crime.
But
Inner City Press asked, even
then, why would the SDNY US
Attorney's Office put out a
press release about a
defendant they were agreeing
to free, while not putting out
anything on two other
defendants they managed to
detain?
On October
28, 2020 Purification
Cristobal appeared before the
assigned District Judge
Katharine Polk Failla for a
change of counsel. Peter E.
Brill has discovered a
conflict of interest, and said
that "Dr. Cristobal has
retained Julie Rendelman."
That change of counsel was
effectuated.
On March
12, 2021, another change of
counsel. The incoming counsel
said his client is intelligent
and needs a lot of attention;
she complained that one
attorney only met her in a
park. He started talking fees
and Judge Failla said,
politely but firmly, that was
an issue she would not get
into.
Jump cut to
August 23, 2022, and Cristobal
is on trial before Judge
Failla. Her lawyer now was
telling the jurors not to hold
it against her client that she
speaks with an accent. That
she took cash as payment is
not strange, she said. Many
people in the low income part
of The Bronx where Cristobal
operated don't have insurance,
she added. And the witnesses
against her are
self-interested.
Judge Failla
asked, Counsel, how many more
do you have?
Counsel said two
more minutes, then told the
jurors, I'm being cut off, but
--
Judge Failla
said, I am not cutting you
off, I only asked a question.
The jury was let
go for the day.
On August 24 a
shaky video in the clinic was
shown, barely audible. The
woman speaking ont the video
was in the witness box, being
asking about patients selling
their pills just outside the
clinic, and communication
between Doctor Cristobal and
Christian Ohaeri.
During the
questioning, perhaps due to
the layout or the glean of the
COVID 19 speaking boxes, it
appeared that most jurors were
watching the AUSA, and not the
witness.
The trial will
continue.
This case is US v. Cristobal,
20-cr-463 (Failla).
***
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