| Drug Defendant 1st Unaware
Where He Conspired Then Tells SDNY It Started
In The Bronx
By Matthew
Russell Lee, Patreon
SDNY COURTHOUSE,
July 3 -- A defendant who only
spoke Spanish pled guilty to
narcotics conspiracy on July 3
but didn't know where it was.
He said, "In New York and New
Jersey." U.S.
District Court
for the
Southern
District of
the New York
Judge John G.
Koeltl tried
to adduce the
magic
words for
venue. "Where
in New York?"
"I
don't know,"
the defendant
answered.
Judge Koeltl
then explained
how the
Southern District
is Manhattan
and the Bronx
and "the
northern counties." The
defendant
finally said,
as with hip-hop,
"It all
started in The
Bronx."
His
name was pronounced
"Sirabi
Hernandez" but
the case was
not on the
day's calendar
on PACER or in
the lobby of
500 Pearl
Street. Inner
City Press has
asked whom it
can and hopes
to have more
on this case - will
have more,
either way.
Also before Judge
Koeltl: A black bag with
heroin in it was stopped at a
bus stop in Missouri back on
May 17. The woman carrying the
heroin agreed to work with the
government and carrying out
delivery in New York. There,
the government says, Nestor
Carosiol Sosa-Ortiz emerged
from a restaurant bathroom
with $4000 wrapped in toilet
paper.
On June 25
Sosa-Ortiz waited shackled for
a status conference before Judge
Koeltl.
There was a
mix up with the
court reporter
then an
additional
delay. Then
when the short
proceeding
actually took
place, the
main outcome
other than
setting the
next,
post-discovery
conference
for September
10 was to
exclude time under
the Speedy
Trial Act.
The phrase nearly
invariably
used is that
the interests
of justice outweigh
the interests
of the public
and of the
defendant in a
speedy trial.
Here, Judge
Koeltl said
that the
exclusion of
time is "in
the best
interest of
the public."
How? The
case is USA v. Sosa-Ortiz,
19-cr-405
(JGK).
If a person in
charge of information
technology or computers for a
retirement plan is accused of
taking kick backs, does it
violate the ERISA statute? The
issue arose as an argument to
try to postpone a trial in
before Judge
Koeltl on June
11. The
request was
triggered by a
superseding
indictment
including new
counts.
The
defense lawyer
for Shivanand
Maharaj, Henry
E. Mazurek
(whom Inner
City Press
readers may
remember from
the US v.
Pinto-Thomaz
trial) asked
for time to
brief the
issue, posing
as a
hypothetical
would a
custodian or
janitor who
just happened
to work at an
ERISA
retirement
plan be
covered?
Judge
Koeltl appears
to believe the
answer is yes,
although he
went to great
pains to say
he never
decided an
issue before
it is fully
briefed. In
this case it
will be fast:
briefs by
Mazurek and
Sarita Kedia
for
co-defendant
Enrico Rubano
due on June
21, US
response by
June 25, reply
as well as
request to
charge by June
27.
The trial is
set to begin
on July 9.
Inner City
Press will be
covering this
case, USA v.
Rubano,
17-cr-169
(JGK). More on
Patreon, here.
On June 10 when
Woojae Jung appeared for
sentencing for insider trading
while at Goldman Sachs before
SDNY Judge Lewis A. Kaplan,
his lawyer argued for no jail
time, citing the possible
immigration law consequence of
this sentencing.
Assistant US
Attorney Andrew Thomas asked
for 18 to 24 months.
Jung's own
statement was largely about
his wife, who works for
Facebook. He did not mention
his brother in South Korea,
who opened up the trading
account in the name of a
college friend.
Judge Kaplan said he was going
to impose a non-guideline
sentence "but not what you're
hoping to hear." It is a
sentence of three months in
prison, which takes Jung out
of the mandatory detention
requirement. Kaplan said he
recommends that Homeland
Security adjust Jung status
and recommends against
detention. He recommended a
minimum security camp.
Jung's
lawyer added that if the last
is not granted he be
designated to Lompoc and in
any event not a privately
contracted facility. Judge
Kaplan agreed to both. There's
$130,000 restitution and a
$30,000 fine.
As
if in another world, at a dry
cleaner's at 727 Westchester
Avenue in The Bronx on 21
September 2018, Angel Perez
walked in with a mask on his
face and a gun in his hand,
demanding money to support his
Xanax habit.
The dry
cleaner ended up shot in the
ankle; Perez was arrested at
his home nearby on Jackson
Avenue.
On June 10
Perez who was allowed to plead
guilty to brandishing rather
than discharging or firing the
gun showed up before SDNY
Judge William H. Pauley III
for sentencing. His Federal
Defender Mark B. Gombiner
asked that sentence be limited
to the seven year mandatory
minimum.
Assistant
US Attorney Jacob R. Fiddelman
argued for 125 to 135 months.
In the gallery where Inner
City Press was the only media
present was Carmen Rosario
which whom Perez has lived
since he got out of prison in
2005. In a letter to Judge
Pauley she says "he is still
magical in my eyes."
The ex dry
cleaner, his name redacted,
wrote a victim's impact
statement that he is an
immigrant and that after being
shot when he tried to sell his
business he couldn't: "no one
was interested in the property
where a gun incident took
place. I sincerely hope that
we are protected from his
potential revenge."
Judge
Pauley after recounting Perez'
early life - both parents were
drug addicts, he said -
addressed the defendant
directly to say, This is
unacceptable, from a 52 year
hold. He imposed a sentence of
108 months, which is to say
nine years. The ex dry cleaner
wrote, "I am terrified by the
thought that the attacker may
[take] revenge on me and my
family after serving his jail
term."
Back on May 23, less than an
hour after witnessing Peter
Bright presented in shackled
in front of his wife in the
SDNY Magistrates
Court, Inner
City Press published
into Google
News a
story about it,
including
Bright's
statement
that he was
training an 11
year told girl in The
Bronx.
Also Periscope
video here,
round
up tweet.
Inner
City Press reported
that Bright's Federal
Defenders
lawyer argued
that a video
camera in
Bright's
Brooklyn
apartment building militates
for his
release on
bond. He was
not released.
Two weeks
later the Daily
Dot's Claire
Goforth from Florida
published a
story about
Bright's
arrest based
off the
complaint on the
PACER document
system. This
has been picked up, with
and without
more. But why
is there no
document in
PACER about
the proceeding
that was due
on June 6? On
any renewed
bid for bail
by the Federal Defenders,
who since that
as reported by
Inner City
Press got
another accused
pedophile
Byran Pivnick
released?
Inner City Press which first
reported
this case will
continue on
it. Watch this
site, @InnerCityPress
and the new @SDNYLIVE.
See Inner City
Press' May 23
Periscope
round up, at
1:10 on
this pedophile
presentment, here
From Inner
City Press'
exclusive May
23 report: "A
dual British -
US citizen
living in
Brooklyn but
reaching out
for underage
sex was
presented, with
his wife in
the courtroom
by that
time only with
Inner City
Press. Federal
Defender Amy
Gallichio
argued that
Peter Bright
should be
released, since
his building
in Brooklyn
has a video
surveillance
system.
But would the
neighbors want
the U.S.
Attorney's
Office to see
their
comings and
goings?
Gallichio offered
for Bright to
install his
own camera
over his door
and turn the
files in to
the
government. Judge
Freeman
found this of
intersted and
invited a second try, if
only in
writing. She
quizzed Bright's
all-American
wife in the
gallery and said
the Peter is
lucky. Was his
claim to be
"training" an
eleven year
old girl in
The Bronx just
puffery? Inner
City Press
will stay on
this case."
And now we
are.
***
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