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By Matthew Russell Lee, Exclusive, Patreon
Honduras - The Source - The Root - etc

SDNY COURTHOUSE, Oct 31 – Racism in federal law enforcement in the Southern District of New York was alleged and argued on October 31, with five defendants in shackles and Inner City Press the only media in the SDNY courtroom of Judge Jed S. Rakoff.

    Judge Rakoff asked lead attorney Christopher Flood whether the racial disparities he and his colleague are alleging are, in fact, statistically significant.

   Passed to Judge Rakoff via his deputy was the declaration of Profession Crystal S. Yang asserting "the racial composition of targeted individuals in DEA reverse-sting stash house cases brought in the SDNY" for the past ten years: "46 operations targeted 179 individuals of whom zero are White, two are Asian and 177 are Latino or Black." This is followed by regression analysis.

     Assistant US Attorney Domenic Gentile, alone at the prosecutor's table, doggedly returned to these particular defendants wearing face masks, and having been recruited through the lead defendant, Flood's client.

    Judge Rakoff said it was interesting, but how was it relevant? He committed to issuing an order on Flood et al's discovery motion by November 12, if only in bottom-line form, in advance of a March 2020 trial. The other defense attorneys on the discovery motion include Jennifer Luo, Michael Tremonte, John Diaz, Stephanie Carvlin, Xavier Donaldson, Dawn Cardi, and the omnipresent Calvin Scholar.

The case is USA v. Lopez et al., 19-cr-323 (Rakoff). Inner City Press will continue to report on this case, and on these issues.