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Bronx Drug Takedown Jonathan Rodriguez
Denied Bond As Limited Means Cited in SDNY
By Matthew
Russell Lee, Patreon
Honduras
- The
Source - The
Root - etc
SDNY COURTHOUSE,
Nov 13 – The indictment for a
narcotics conspiracy centered
around Elliot Place and the
Grand Concourse in The Bronx
was unsealed on November 13,
when some but not all of the
defendants were arrested and
presented before U.S. District
Court for the Southern
District of New York
Magistrate Judge Katharine H.
Parker.
Assistant US Attorney Frank J.
Balsamello argued at length
for the detention of defendant
Jonathan Rodriguez,
emphasizing a charge of felony
hit and run in Miami and
disputes whether his claimed
employment in a grocery store
is true.
Pre-Trial
Services had called Rodriguez'
girlfriend who had not, they
said, confirmed any such
employment. (Distrust of law
enforcement might explain
that.) Judge Parker said
Pre-Trial Service had been
unable to find the grocery
store at all, perhaps a
difference between the name on
the awning and the legal name.
Judge Parker asked Balsamello
if he was saying that
Rodriguez and his proposed
co-signers were judgment
proof. He agreed.
Minutes later in denying bond
among the numerous factors
cited by Judge Parker
including the opioid and gun
crises was that Rodriguez and
his proposed co-signers were
of limited means and so the
bond might provide
insufficient incentive. This
amid a trend, at least at the
state level, away from cash
bail.
There remain in the case four
sealed defendants. But it has
been assigned to Judge Sidney
H. Stein. The case is US
v. Marte, et al.,
19-cr-795 (Stein / Parker).
The
previous day two defendants
who allegedly defrauded Park
Avenue Bank were presented and
pled not guilty in U.S.
District Court for the
Southern District of New York
Magistrate court on November
12, and were both quickly
released on $500,000 bond
each.
Inner City Press was there, as
were a number of the
defendants' supporters and at
least three privately retained
lawyers including Benjamin
Brafman.
The US Attorney's Office
announced the unsealing of an
Indictment charging attorney
Mendel Zilberberg, a former
director of Park Avenue Bank
and Aron Fried with bank fraud
and related charges for
perpetrating a fraudulent
scheme to obtain a $1.4
million loan to a straw
borrower on the basis of false
statements and
misrepresentations. Zilberberg
was also separately charged
with embezzlement and
misappropriation of Bank funds
while he was a director and
insider of the Bank.
Magistrate Judge Katharine A.
Parker asked what time the
defendants had been arrested.
Assistant US Attorney Sagar K.
Ravi said at 6 am; he has
already summarized the terms
of release to a pre-trial
services offer.
Judge Parker
asked each man who he pled -
not guilty - and then jotted
down the terms of their
release. For Zilberberg it was
a $500,000 bond secured by his
home in Moncey, New York, with
mental health treatment as
needed and travel to New
Jersey and Florida.
Fried didn't secure his
$500,000 bond with property
but rather three co-signers;
he can travel also to the
Eastern District of
Pennsylvania. His lawyer, who
had before Judge Parker began
said with apparent sarcasm,
Wait until you see the
notorious violent criminals
coming out, asked that the
Marshals take his ankle irons
off. This occured as the next
presentment, of a defendant
whose supporters down from The
Bronx included a baby, was
prepared.
The
case is US v. Zilberberg
and Fried, 19-cr-802
(Daniels / Parker). The next
appearance is set for December
3 at 10 am. Inner City Press
will continue to follow this
case
***
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