| In Drug Case of Venezuela
and Turkey US Attorney Gave Discovery Late
Plea Withdrawn
By Matthew
Russell Lee, Patreon Transcript
BBC
- Guardian
UK - Honduras
- ESPN
SDNY
COURTHOUSE, Nov 2 –
Michols Orsini Quintero is
charged with being a drug king
pin in Venezuela, Turkey,
Russia and the Dominican
Republic.
Now the
Department of Justice wants to
withhold information about a
cooperating witness, not only
from the press and public, but
even from the defense.
On September 23
U.S. District Court for the
Southern District Alvin K.
Hellerstein held a
publicly-noticed proceeding.
Inner City Press covered
it.
It emerged
that AUSA Amanda Houle has
made ex parte sealed filings
with Judge Hellerstein, with
not a wisp of them in the
docket.
There was a
discussion of showing some but
not all of the information to
Orsini's lawyer, Sabrina
Shroff, on an "attorney's eyes
only" basis. Shroff, to her
credit, pushed back.
Now on
October 28, Judge Hellerstein
held another proceeding after
the US Attorney's Office
late-produced some eight
terabytes of information, more
than double the volume it
produced before one of the
co-defendant pleaded guilty.
This is post the US v. Nejad
case Inner City Press has
reported on and in which it
anticipates making a filing -
watch this site.
While
Shroff is still digging
through the terabytes,
attorney Christine Chung
was mulling withdrawing
Victor Mones Coro's plea.
Now Coro
has withdrawn the plea, with
the US writing on November 2:
"Re: United States v. Tareck
Zaidan El Aissami Maddah, et
al., No. 19 Cr. 144 (AKH) Dear
Judge Hellerstein: On
October 21, 2020, Victor Mones
filed a motion seeking relief
in connection with alleged
violations of the Government’s
obligations under Brady v.
Maryland, 373 U.S. 83 (1963)
and Giglio v. United States,
405 U.S. 150 (1972). At a
pretrial conference on October
28, 2020, and in a subsequent
Order docketed the same day,
the Court denied Mones’s
motion without prejudice. On
October 30, 2020, Mones moved
to withdraw his guilty plea.
Although the Government does
not concede any Brady or
Giglio violations, under the
unique facts and circumstances
of this case, the Government
does not object to Mones
withdrawing his guilty
plea. Respectfully
submitted, AUDREY STRAUSS
Acting United States Attorney
By: /s/ Samuel S. Adelsberg
Amanda L. Houle Assistant
United States Attorneys."
In the interest
of increased transparency, here
is the October 28 transcript,
on Inner City Press'
DocumentCloud, here.
And Inner City
Press' filing to further
unseal in Nejad has been
docketed.
This case is US
v. Orsini Quintero, 19-cr-144
(Hellerstein)
***
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