| Virtual
Courtroom Was Closed to Press At NYC Gov
Request Now $850 For Constitutional Harm
By Matthew
Russell Lee, Patreon
BBC
- Guardian
UK - Honduras
- ESPN
SDNY COURTHOUSE,
June 22– When can a Federal
court proceeding, about
Constitutional rights and
involving the expenditure of
public funds, be closed to the
Press and public?
Well, in
the era of virtual telephone
proceedings amid the COVID
pandemic, at any time at all,
it seems.
On January
6, 2021 Inner City Press
called in to what was
described as a "status
conference" on a case in which
a New York City prisoner sued
claiming he was prohibited
from exercising his
religion.
When asked
who had just joined the line,
Inner City Press identified
itself as always, and said it
would go on mute to not
disrupt anything.
But the NYC
Corporation Counsel Sharon
Vicky Sprayregen asked, Who
was that? She did not want
press coverage.
When (U.S.
District Court for the
Southern District of New York
Magistrate) Judge Katharine H.
Parker came on the line, she
said that the Administration
was prepared to make a
settlement offer, but she had
thought this would be
confidential.
The Judge
asked Inner City Press to
disconnect.
To not be
disruptive, it prepared to do
so, but unmuted to say, It is
not listed as a settlement
conference. But by then, it
had been hung up on.
Should the
City government, with tax
payer funds, be confidentially
offering monetary settlements
to people whose rights it
violates?
Now on June 22,
2021, this: the City is paying
the plaintiff $850 to dismiss
the case with prejudice.
Justice on the cheap, with
Press disconnected.
The case
is Washington v. NYC
Department of Corrections et
al, 19-cv-5395 (Gardephe /
Parker)
***
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