| Speedy Trial
Right Were Asserted For Extortion of Fire
Victims Trial Now Switched to Nov 28
By Matthew
Russell Lee, Patreon Maxwell
book
BBC -
Honduras
- CIA
Trial book - NY
Mag
SDNY COURTHOUSE,
Sept 14 – The lead
defendant in a criminal case
alleging gang extortion in the
field of clean-up services to
properties damaged by fire is
asserting his Speedy Trial Act
rights.
On
September 9, 2022, U.S.
District Court for the
Southern District of New York
Judge Jed S. Rakoff held an
in-person arraignment and
detention or bond proceeding,
with the defendant's family
and supporters filling half of
the courtroom gallery. Inner
City Press was there.
On the
request to move up the
scheduled May 2023 trial to
October, Judge Rakoff said he
will speak with Judge Analisa
Torres about changing the
schedule of her US v. Tim Shea
(We Build the Wall) trial.
We'll see.
On
detention or release, the
Assistant US Attorney - who
may have to choose between
this trial and Shea's -
recited from audio recordings
of threatens, saying "N-word,
I'm gonna kill
you."
The defense
lawyer, retained from Staten
Island, pointed to those in
the gallery and called the
threats hyperbole. Judge
Rakoff said the defendant
clearly had supporters, but
was a danger to the community.
He was ordered
detained.
Afterward by the
elevators, supporters said of
the prosecutors after they
left in a separate elevator,
"They lie."
On September 13,
Judge Rakoff held a proceeding
with co-defendants. Now the
lead defendant applied to move
his trial from October 17 to
November 28 was granted, and
three co-defendants were
allowed to join him for trial
beginning that date, one with
a new lawyer. The others
remain for trial on "5-1-22,"
which we take to mean May 1,
2022.
The case
is US v. Smith, et al.,
22-cr-352 (Rakoff)
***
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