Jason Mojica Who Sold A Gun
in Port Authority As a Felon Takes Berman Plea
Deal For 15 to 21 Months
By Matthew
Russell Lee, Periscope video
SDNY COURTHOUSE,
May 24 – Jason Mojica sold a
gun in the Port Authority Bus
Terminal in February 2019. It
was to an undercover FBI agent
and on May 24 in the U.S.
District Court
for the
Southern
District of
New York
courtroom of
Judge Ronnie
Abrams Mojica
pled guilty.
The Office of
U.S. Attorney
Geoffrey S.
Berman made a
plea agreement
with Mojica
for a prison
term of 15 to
21 months.
This was based
on a
felon-in-possession
arrangement.
But the
underlying
facts are of
weapon sale,
not just
possession.
Mojica spoke
more movingly
than most,
saying that he
was sorry and
that he only
sold the gun
to get money
to feed his
heroin habit.
He said he has
been clear for
three months.
When Judge
Abrams asked
if he is in
treatment the
answer was No.
Sentencing was
set for
September 13
at noon. Inner
City Press
will be there,
@SDNYLIVE.
Back on May 21 in a tale of
two case, when Colin Akparanta
was brought in shackles,
accused of sexually abusing
female prisoners under his
control in the Metropolitan
Correctional Center prison,
into the SDNY
Magistrates Court
, his wife
had been
waiting for
him for hours.
So too his
for-now
publicly paid
lawyer.
A few hours before a
defendant named
Hunter accused
of selling
guns from
South Carolina
to an
informant was
processed in
the same
Magistrates
Court, also
with his wife
or partner
Hope Hall in
the gallery.
Unlike Akparnta,
Farmer has no
passport - and
as noted in
the courtroom,
there are
no SDNY
extradition
issues with
South Carolina.
Call it
a tale of two arraignments,
or
presentments,
whatever the
term of art.
As to
Akparanta after a
reading of the
charges, Akparanta
was offered
$200,000 bail
but only when others
sign on to it.
The U.S.
Attorney's
Office will go
to the
house he owns
in Irvington, New
Jersey to pick
up his two
guns, and then
store them in
a vault. His
lawyer
said Yes, he
will be
engaging in
discussions about a
pre-trial
disposition, meaning
a plea.
The
government
argued for a
curfew, saying
that Akparanta
is a
naturalized
U.S. citizen
originally
from Nigeria
to which he
retains strong
ties.
He didn't try
to flee when
first
questioned -
but it seems
he thought he
was under
investigation
only for bringing
contraband
into the MCC
for female
prisoners, not for the sex
acts he traded
the contraband
and control
for.
The
unsealed
indictment in
USA v. Akparanta
lists as his nicknames
or aliases "Africa"
and "Akon." (A
commenter on
Inner
City Press' thread about
the
arraignment
noted that the
singer Akon is
not, in fact,
from Nigeria -
but neither is
Africa a
country.)
Akparanta's
lawyer expressed
concern
about where he
would be
detained on
the night of
May 21 while
awaiting
another signer for
his bond
and the
retrieval of
his guns. The
prosecutors
said he will
not be in
general
population or
even in any
Bureau of
Prisons facility
but rather a
contract one
(sounds like
GEO, a
private
prison.)
The government
asked that
time be excluded under
the Speedy
Trial Act for
discovery, which
they said is
voluminous
even though
the complaint
says the sex
acts took place
off camera,
referring to
"The Bubble," and
to discusss a pre-trial
disposition,
meaning a
plea. Judge
Freeman
asked Akparanta's
lawyer
if he anticipated
engaging in
such discussions.
Yes, was the
answer. So how
long, in a
private prison? Inner
City Press
will continue to
cover this
case, and
others.
Magistrate
Judge Debra
Freedman, presiding
over SDNY
Courtroom 5A
for the
week, said the
government's
proposal of a
curfew
as a way to
prevent flight
to Nigeria did
not make sense. She
ordered that
Akparanta not
have contact
with any
current or
former inmates
except in the
presence of
his (still publicly
paid) counsel,
which implies
he will not be
going back to
work as a
correctional
officer any
time soon.
Jordan McDonald came to be
sentenced on May 3 for robbing
two businesses in The Bronx at
gun point, a separate case of
which he is already serving 61
months in prison for. But
while in the Metropolitan
Correctional Center he was
stabbed, he said in courtroom
otherwise empty but for Inner
City Press of U.S.
District Court
for the
Southern
District of
New York Judge
Laura Taylor
Swain.
Troublingly,
this being
stabbed while
in jail was
not in the Pre
Sentencing
Report. While
the judge made
a point of
adding it, as
part of
Paragraph 110,
she also said
that the PSR
will be
sealed. Could
this be called
the cover up
of human
rights
violations, in
this case of a
prisoner? The
case is USA
v McDonald,
16-cr-00826-LTS-11.
McDonald's
father was a
drug addict
often in jail;
his mother was
murdered when
he was a
teenager. He
has a daughter
he has not
met, since
being in jail.
He pleaded on
May 3 for a
second chance,
and after a
time received
an additional
24 months
tacked on to
the 61 months
he is already
serving.
He asked that
he be allowed
to serve it
not close to
New York, as
so many in the
SDNY request,
but rather at
a Federal
prison in
Kentucky,
where he was
been taking
job training
for
construction
work in
concrete. Judge
Laura Taylor
Swain gave him
best wish and
said,
understandably,
that she hoped
to never see
him again.
Two days earlier
on the other side of Pearl
Street in 40 Foley Square,
defendant Jesus Lopez walked
into the SDNY courtroom of
Judge Valerie E. Caproni to be
sentenced on May 1 for driving
10 kilograms of cocaine from
California to New York.
He was
wearing a suit; he had been
allowed out on bond while
awaiting sentencing due to his
mother having Stage Four
cancer. Before the sentencing
he uploaded a video directed
at Judge Caproni but still
online as of this writing on
Vimeo, here.
The
courtroom was full, with two
U.S. Marshals in the back row,
and the two front rows, Inner
City Press was later informed
by a participant in the
proceeding, filled by judges
from China. Lopez' lawyer Jeff
Greco argued in his sentencing
submission for time served,
essentially one month.
But Judge
Caproni, after asking
Assistant U.S. Attorney Nathan
Rhen why the government wasn't
seeking forfeiture of the
truck Lopez used to drive the
drugs - "there's a lot of
equity in there," she said --
looked sternly at Lopez.
Judge Caproni was not
impressed by Lopez' statement
that he took drugs because he
was bored, that boredom was
one of his triggers. She said
she did not believe that he
had only agreed to drive the
drugs in order to feed his own
habit. First she sentenced him
to 60 month, five years, in
prison.
Then as
the U.S. Marshals rustled in
the row behind Inner City
Press, she said she would be
remanding Lopex into custody
today. Right now. Her
courtroom deputy handed the
Marshals an order to that
effect.
Defense attorney Greco said
that Lopez' mother could die
at any time, and that the
Bureau of Prisons would be
unlikely to let him out to
attend her funeral. Judge
Caproni said there was no way
to know when his mother would
die, and that she had allowed
him to remain out on bond
pending sentencing so he could
spent time with her. The
Chinese judges sat as Jesus
Lopez took his wallet out of
his pants and put his hands
out for shackling.
A well known
courtroom
artist in the
SDNY has told
Inner City
Press about
the time she
managed to
sketch a
similar remand
of a higher
profile
defendant,
Bernie Madoff.
But there was
no artist
present for
the remand of
Jesus Lopez,
and cameras
are not
allowed - only
this article.
The case is U.S.
v. Lopez,
part of the
larger
conspiracy
prosecution U.S.
v. Soto et al.,
18-cr-00282
(Caproni).
Notably one
floor above in
40
Foley Square,
a man who pled
guilty to
stealing $7
million in
Medicare and
Medicaid fraud
has had his
sentencing
delayed for a
year already,
and perhaps
another year,
so that his
wife can
finish a
medical
residency
program. That
case is U.S
v. Javed,
16-cr-00601-VSB.
Unlike the
unpublicized
case of Jesus
Lopez,
the Office of
the US
Attorney for
the SDNY
announced the
Javed
sentencing to
the press (but
not its
subsequent
deferral).
Click here
for that
story.
Which approach
is the right
one? How can
these
disparities be
explained?
These are
among the
questions that
Inner City
Press will be
pursuing, in
the SDNY.
Watch this
site, and the
new @SDNYLIVE
Twitter feed.
Background: Even
in Judge Caproni's courtroom,
there are more positive or
lenient stories. When Todd
Howe, who pled guilty in the
New York State corruption
case(s), came up for
sentencing on April 5, Judge
Caproni was
told that Howe
is now working
more than 12
hours a day in
Idaho, on ski
slopes and now
a golf course.
After his
guilty plea he
had been
remanded to
the
Metropolitan
Correctional
Center when he
disputed to
Capital One
some credit
card charges
and the
government
believed it to
be another
attempted
fraud.
With
him out of MCC
for seven
months, Judge
Caproni said
it may have
just been a
mistake. She
put off
sentencing
Howe, instead
putting him on
five years
probation. If
he "stays
clean" during
that time, it
all goes away.
If not, he
faces serious
time.
In the
elevator down
after Howe's
lawyer, in
what she
called her
last criminal
sentencing,
said Howe
still respects
government
service after
his lobbying
career
meltdown,
Inner City
Press asked
Howe what he
thought for
example of
congestion
pricing. He
laughed and
said it is not
needed in
Idaho.
Meanwhile a
shackled
prisoner Jones
was led into
Judge
Caproni's now
empty
courtroom to
plead guilty
to selling
crack in The
Bronx and
hiding a gun
after a 1999
felony
conviction.
That
sentencing is
set for August
1. Inner City
Press and @SDNYLIVE will be there.
***
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