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By Matthew Russell Lee Patreon
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SDNY COURTHOUSE, Sept 20 – For long time federal judge Robert W. Sweet who passed away in March, not just a remembrance but a special session of court was held on September 20 in the U.S. District Court of the Southern District of New York. Judge Sweet's pro-press, pro-homeless and pro civil liberties decisions were reviewed, along with one of his final hobbies: ice dancing.   

  Judge Kimba W. Wood structured her remarks around a handful of Judge Sweet's decisions, including his decision upholding journalists' First Amendment rights to protect their sources from government subpoenas, in NYT v. Gonzales, 04-cr-7677.  

   A tabloid newspaper cover trolling Judge Sweet's decision blocking the New York City Police Department from prohibiting or overly restricted protests -- the headline was "Judge-Mental" - was recalled by his son Robert W. Sweet Jr., who said he and his siblings thereafter called themselves The Mentals.  

   His former law clerk Madeline deLone recounted champagne in chambers but also the seriousness of the work. She is now the executive director of the Innocence Project.   

   Current SDNY Chief Judge Colleen McMahon cited Judge Sweet's 389 page decision on defendants' motion to dismiss in the post predatory lending scandal Bear Sterns litigation.   

  Her predecessor and still SDNY Judge Loretta A. Preska, who presided over the 2018 UN bribery scandal conviction of Patrick Ho shed tears recounting Judge Sweet's work on two airplane crash lawsuits. 

   Judge Sweet's role as a U.S. State Department ambassador on the rule of law, including visits to train judges in Albania, Iraq and, yes, China came up twice. The Mother Court, it was said, was Robert Sweet's passport to the world. It can be that even without getting on a plane.   

   Inner City Press covered Judge Sweet's last trial, a Bronx drug conspiracy prosecution involving the Mill Brook Houses of which current SDNY Judge Analisa Torres spoke in a recent sentencing. 

Two weeks before his death, Judge Sweet was dealing with jury notes and the rubbing of shoulders of understandably angry Bronx mother and well dressed corporate lawyers. More than most, Judge Sweet through his ruling treated, or tried to treat, these two groups equally. He will be missed. 

* * *

  In reporting on the sometimes depressing litany of young adults jailed in the U.S. Federal courts, with sentences repeated extended by violations of Supervised Release, one hears from time to time of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York's Young Adult Opportunity Program. Inner City Press heard it mentioned on September 3 by SDNY Magistrate Judge Sarah Netburn, that there was an open meeting later in the day.

Nowhere on the SDNY website was the location of the meeting given, but a defense attorney pointed Inner City Press in the right direction, in 40 Foley Square.

  There, Judge Netburn and District Judge Ronnie Abrams, fresh off presiding over what some called the homeless beat-down trial of Sargeant Cordell Fitts, took on roles strikingly different than at sentencings and changes of plea. A baker's dozen of program participants sat in a circle testifying, in the manner of group therapy, about how their month of August had gone.

  For most it was good: a man had apologized to a woman for his behavior, another was making money from his livery cab even while going home to take care of his daughter. A woman had gotten engaged and nearly all were in school. One had been and perhaps will again be a Columbia University teacher's aide, working now at a non-profit.

  The judges gave each of them encouragement, extracting life lessons such as to not hang out with the same old crowd, to not get flumoxed by the ups and downs of income.

  To the two graduating on September 3, good luck was wished. Cases reactivate and it is up to each defendant's lawyer to make a pitch to the Assistant US Attorneys on how to proceed.

Of course there were challenges: a school too far away from home, a month so bad its experiencer asked to speak to the judges in private afteward. (Inner City Press left, and is also not identifying participants in this story). But it was a welcome relief to the drum beat of sentencings and violations of supervised release. There should be more or it.

While many even most cases in the Magistrates Court of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York are sealed or have case numbers given only later, on September 3 Magistrate Judge Sarah Netburn herself expressed concern about unanswered questions about a defendant whose name appeared to be Mr Foreman, a citizen of Guyana and also perhaps of the United States, either living with his mother or not. He is charged with wire fraud and aggrevated identity theft.

Given all these uncertainties, Judge Netburn said no release until conditions met. She also suggested that his appointed lawyer look into the Young Adult Opportunity Program she runs along with SDNY District Judge Ronnie Abrams. Later on September 3, Inner City Press did look into the program, see above. 

Back on August 30 Magistrate Judge Parker was reading out the bond conditions for a defendant called Soto when suddenly the government and Federal Defender Christopher Flood asked for a whispered sidebar.

  There was no court reporter, and Inner City Press the only media in the Mag court could not hear. Suddenly the bail deal was off, and the bond proceeding continued until September 5 in front of Judge Parker. Soto is charged with selling guns, and said he planned to work for Amazon while he said being already employed as a teachers aid. Was this what the whispering was about? Murky mag court indeed.

  Even in the Mag court, case law requires that there be one the record findings about the need to defeat the presumption of press and public access to all facets of such proceedings. Inner City Press will have more on this.

  Earlier in the week affable Judge Parker instructed a defendant named Mr. Patterson who was being released to stay away from the Gun Hill Road area in The Bronx.

The scope of that neighborhood was not defined; his assigned CJA lawyer as we've noted before is at the same time representing the government in a criminal contempt case. Inner City Press will have more on this.

Inner City Press will continue to cover this and other SDNY and 2nd Circuit cases - watch this site, and there is more on Patreon, here.