| Accused Oxy Nurse Freed in
Mag Court Now Remains Masked During Closing
Arguments
By Matthew
Russell Lee, Patreon
BBC
- Guardian
UK - Honduras
- The
Source
SDNY COURTHOUSE,
Sept 6 – 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.
On August 25 the
witness, Destiny White, was
cross examined. She was asked
about her non prosecution
agreement with the Government,
absolving her for driving
deliveries of marijuana and
allowing her bank account to
be used for fraud. She
testified that she got drugs
for her two sons from
Cristobal. Afterward, after
she was excused she was on the
sidewalk in front of 40 Foley
Square looking relieved.
Inside, not so much.
From August 26:
Cristobal is
wrote
prescriptions
for Oxocodone,
Xanax and
Adderall for
patients she
never
examined, many
of whom turned
around and
sold the drugs
to other
addicts.
One such patient
who re-sold drugs, Danilla
LoCicero, testified on the
afternoon of August 26, 2022
in the trial before U.S.
District Court for the
Southern District of New York
Judge Katharine Polk Failla.
Inner City Press was present
in Courtroom 318 for the
direct, cross and re-direct
examination.
Ms.
LoCicero began by saying she
has worked for JP Morgan Chase
for 17 years. She then said
that all of the Oxycodone she
was prescribed by "Doctor
Cristobal" she gave to her
common law husband Peter
Maisonave to re-sell for cash.
She said
Maisonave was suffering some
anxiety and depression due to
being out of work and
considering back surgury which
he ultimately had. The
oxy he didn't sell, he crushed
up and snorted. LoCicero asked
to be sent to a pharmacy that
provided the oxy in crushable
form.
Somehow,
while still working for Chase
Bank, LoCicero began working
in Cristobal's clinic,
resubmitted bills that had
been rejected to insurance
companies. Her pay was in
drugs prescribed without any
visit.
She was
offered a deal in which she
will not be prosecuted for
possession of the drugs with
intent to distribute, and
insurance fraud, as long as
she testifies truthfully
against Cristobal.
The cross
examination, while focusing on
2006 spine MRIs to argue the
drugs may have been necessary,
did not get into the insurance
fraud or work at JP Morgan
Chase.
When LoCicero
left the witness stand and
courtroom, a man who appeared
to be her lawyer followed her
out.
On August 29,
there were spreadsheets
showing Cristobal prescribing
171 days of drugs to Justin
Campanella for a mere 115
days. There was talk of the
request to charge, and a
motion in limine.
On August 31,
Cristobal's counsel wrote to
Judge Failla about a dispute
with the prosecutors about the
appropriate scope of expert
Dr. Gharibo's testimony, who
testified on August 30 that
NYS law requires a physical
exam before oxycodone is
prescribed. The defense says
no, citing a CDC
interpretation. They offer to
address it with the Court
going forward.
On September 6,
the day the SDNY made COVID
masks voluntary, the Assistant
US Attorney began his closing
argument to the jury, without
a mask. Most jurors were
maskless, too. The defendant,
notably, was not.
The question, the
prosecutor said, was whether
when prescribing Oxy she had
been operating as a medical
practitioner. He said this
should have required
evaluating patients. The
defendant watched closely,
from behind her mask.
This case is US v. Cristobal,
20-cr-463 (Failla).
***
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