| In Drug Case of Venezuela
Pilot Jan 31 Trial Set Orsini Was Shown Take
It Or Leave It Pimentel
By Matthew
Russell Lee, Patreon Transcript
BBC
- Guardian
UK - Honduras
- ESPN
SDNY
COURTHOUSE, Nov 11 –
Michols Orsini Quintero is
charged with being a drug king
pin in Venezuela, Turkey,
Russia and the Dominican
Republic.
On September 23,
2020 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.
On October
28, 2020Judge 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.
Mones moved to
withdraw the plea; the Court
accepted the withdrawal of
plea.
On
November 11, 2020 Mones
requested sanctions, stating
that on October 25 the US
Attorney's Office turned over
a hard drive containing,
erroneously, "confidential
material regarding another
investigation that DHS had
mistakenly copied onto the
drive." We'll have more on
this.
In the interest
of increased transparency, here
is the October 28, 2020
transcript, on Inner City
Press' DocumentCloud, here.
Jump cut to
November 9, 2021, when Judge
Hellerstein held another
conference on Orsini Quintero,
eager to set a trial date.
While the defense asked for
June or July, Assistant US
Attorney Sam Adelsberg pushed
for January. When offered
January 23 he cited a
conflict; the trial is set, as
much as it can be, for January
31.
Judge Hellerstein
asked if the AUSA has
presented Orsini with a
Pimentel letter estimating the
government's view of the
sentencing range. Yes, was the
answer. But it was not taken,
it was left.
Inner City Press
will cover the trial, whenever
it happens.
This case is US
v. Orsini Quintero, 19-cr-144
(Hellerstein)
***
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