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By Matthew Russell Lee, Periscope video

SDNY COURTHOUSE, May 2 – For a federal prosecution of a merchant processing scam involving Optimal Bankcard and, according to the exhibits, Deutsche Bank was heard on May 2 before U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York Judge Vernon S. Broderick.

The proprietor of a Texas BBQ business was repetitively asked about the fine print of his contract; the Assistant U.S. Attorney repeatedly objected and finally Judge Broderick genially called a cookie break for the jury, while mock complaining to them that he had missed his lunch. (They laughed.)

  One wondered if predatory lending could be funny, in the SDNY, and so boring. Inner City Press will try to stay on the case.

Back on April 9 the mother of UNICEF Kid Power "Goodwill Ambassador" Jaden Michael, Clara Perez, was suing the U.S. for a 2014 fender bender on Tenth Avenue and 36th Street with a car driven by a Drug Enforcement Agency special agent. But at the bench trial on April 8 before SDNY Judge Broderick, it emerged that Ms. Perez had taken oxy before the accident - daily, her doctor's notes seemed to say. (Broderick weeks later told the Press that his ruling in the bench trial was still outstanding; we aim to be notified.) There was also the matter of a UNICEF blog showing Clara Perez kick boxing along with her son, and reference to a trainer named Ringo. On April 9 the bench trial's day ended with the government's doctor insisting he has no conflict of interest, that he got along so fine with Ms. Perez doctor that the latter invited him to see her other patients are recently as June or July 2018. (He said he remember it was summer because his wife was mad he came home late). Judge Broderick convened a sidebar, with the white noise turned up loud. But to protect whom, in this bench trial? By the time that ended, the day was done, with the doctor saying he'll rearrange his patients in order to appear on Thursday. 

While Inner City Press was the only media present, both days, other in the case wonder at the incongruity of suing for injury to shoulder, neck and chest while posing kick boxing for UNICEF, and wonder what UNICEF has to say about all this. Inner City Press will continue to cover it. April 8 video here. Judge Broderick, readers may remember, presided over the Ng Lap Seng UN bribery case, for which Dominican diplomat Francis Lorenzo who pled guilty to bribery is still walking free - complaining about the pain of his ankle bracelet, and getting it removed...

A few days prior on April 4 a long time petty criminal was brought shackled into Federal court on Thursday, after serving three years in state penitentiary for stealing appliances from a department store. This was deemed a violation of supervised release, and the Assistant US Attorney argued for no bail. But Stanley Bamber was born in Newark and still has family in New Jersey. He could live with his brother, his assigned lawyer argued, pending arguments before SDNY Judge Alison Nathan, occupied the same day with Elon Musk. It was finally agreed that if Probation approves and radio frequency electronic monitoring is in place, the 60 year old Bambury may see the light of day. Between 1976 and 2000, the prosecutor said, Bamber was charged with crimes 35 times. His was the last case of the day; in the elevator Inner City Press asked the AUSA about his record and got a Have a good night. Okay then - just another day in the SDNY. Johnny Morgan is suing the United States for a rectal search he endured in the Metropolitan Correctional Center at 150 Park Row, right next to the SDNY. On April 4 before SDNY Magistrate Judge Debra Freeman, the government presented an expert Roy Lubit who said that Morgan is a "malingerer" and blamed his pain on abuse suffered earlier at the hand of his own mother. But even government expert Lubit said that the rectal entry should not have happened. It is, in fact, an outrage. Inner City Press was the only media in the smallish courtroom, compared to dozens of reporters two hours later for Elon Musk. While some might question taxpayer money going to pay damages for what happened to Mr. Morgan, what about public money for an expert witness to insult the torturee? We'll have more on this. The Federal Defenders scored a big win in a misdemeanor proceeding that only Inner City Press attended and covered on April 2. They defeated the U.S. Attorney's Office which argued that the simple assault they agreed to on a dispute on a cruise ship required allocution to actual physical conflict. There was case law on the Federal Defenders' side, and a plea to making a threat on the cruise ship - in "international waters" -- was found sufficient. The case was United States v. Batista, 18 Cr. 730 (NRB). The Federal Defenders lawyer was Sabrina P. Shroff, whom Inner City Press has previously covered in the UN bribery cases of Patrick Ho (new Hong Kong documentary here), getting bail for Cheikh Gadio, and of Ng Lap Seng, representing hapless Jeff Yin. The issue in Batista was whether simple assault requires the defendant to "strike or choke." Ms. Shroff cited the US v Denis and US v Chestaro cases, and the matter was quickly disposed by Judge Naomi Reice Buchwald in her relatively small courtroom on the 21st floor of 500 Pearl Street. The question is why the U.S. Attorney's Office in this case had not researched basic case law - and whether the defendant Carlos Batista, Junior, from the Dominican Republic, must now be deported. We hope to have more on this.

Earlier on April 2, in 40 Foley: "I was a street drug dealer in from of my building in the Bronx," a defendant told U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York Judge Paul A. Engelmayer on April 2. Defendant Gonzalez was pleading guilty to a lesser included charge, with a guideline sentence of between 120 and 150 months in jail. But he won't be sentenced until July 11 at 2:30 pm, after the Probation Department does its interview and issues a Pre Sentencing Report that will remain sealed until, somehow, Gonzalez appeals. We'll have more on this.