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By Matthew Russell Lee

SDNY COURTHOUSE, Oct 22 – While many or even most cases in the Magistrates Court of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York are sealed or have case numbers given only later, on October 22 before Magistrate Judge Debra Freeman a defendant was brought in past 5 pm in shackles, accused of assaulting a U.S. Marshal.

No docket number was given; it sounded like the defendant's name was Lair. After being offered a location monitoring bracelet and $25,000 bail, he was led into an office to sign it, after a fancier defendant with two retained lawyers arranged for his in-town uncle to sign his bond. And so it goes in the SDNY, where hours later on PACER even the cases for Jorge Padilla    Wire Fraud    19-mj-9589 Timothy Mitchell    Felon in possession of a firearm    19-mj-9688  were both still listed as sealed...

Last week as it covered in real time an 11 year sentence for a Brooklyn defendant, Jamel Jones, Inner City Press was subject to an "incident report." Here. While loving the beat, and respecting the law, inquires have been made, and now followed up.

Also last week  a prosecutor and prospective defense attorney were allowed to make presentations to Magistrate Judge Aaron in the robing room, out of public view. Earlier, a defense lawyer asked to make an argument withheld from the public at sidebar - and the Assistant US Attorney, Michael D. Longyear, consented to the secrecy.

That defendant  Gustavo Llevano-Rivera was in the MS-13 indictment on which Inner City Press reported on October 16, here and below.

Judge Aaron after several minutes of whispering said on the record the general topic - "financially responsible person" - but not the content. The problem, into which Inner City Press is inquiring, is that unlike situations at sentencing where a District Judge might have a court reporter for such an initially-sealed sidebar, in the Magistrates Court for bond hearing there is no court reporter.  While an audio recording is made for subsequent transcription, it does not appear that SDNY Magistrates Court sidebars are recorded. So it's... gone.  This is also the case with Magistrate Judge's discussions in the robing room with Pre-Trial Services and, as happened in the penultimate case on the evening of October 17, with the AUSA and prospective defense attorney.  The defendant, on passport fraud charges, was Javier Francisco Gil Savignon and while the Federal Defender and AUSA were in the robing room, he was whispering loudly to his mother in the gallery. While Inner City Press will not report what was said, it makes the withholding of the robing room arguments, which were not even transcribed or recorded for possible later publication, all the more problematic. Inner City Press has inquired. As on the Honduras case...

Inner City Press will stay on these cases.

SW