SDNY Judge Berman Urged Drug
Treatment For Ortiz Now He Calls In Again
By Matthew
Russell Lee, Patreon
BBC
- Guardian
UK - Honduras
- The
Source
SDNY COURTHOUSE,
Oct 21 – Sammy Ortiz was
sentenced to 72 months in
prison by U.S. District Court
for the Southern District of
New York Judge Richard M.
Berman on November 4, 2014.
Judge Berman
recommended that Ortiz
"receive a mental health
evaluation and treatment while
incarcerated," as well as
participate in a substance
abuse program.
On July 16, Judge
Berman held a telephone
proceeding with Ortiz. Inner
City Press covered it.
Ortiz was and is
in crisis, it seemed.
He wanted to
enroll in a 28 day residential
drug treatment program, but
the program, called
Cornerstone, required that he
be taken three other
mentally-related medicines.
In essence, he
faces remand to jail unless he
takes these medications.
Judge
Berman asked, Do you have your
meds? Ortiz' answers shifted,
from that the meds were lost
in his bag, to that he did not
want to take them.
His
lawyers, who named all three
-- Inner City Press will not
-- said that one in
particular, her client did not
want to take.
She committed to
quarterback the process of
getting Ortiz into Crossroads,
since Judge Berman said he
will be "out of pocket" most
of next week. He told Ortiz,
I'd come there myself if I
could.
Ortiz said, We're
known each other for years and
I thank you.
That
transcript is still not in the
docket, where the most recent
one is from April 21.
On October
21, there was another
telephone conference, with
Ortiz' (and Natalie Edwards')
lawyer Stephanie Carvlin.
Things got heated and another
conference was set for
November 10. This is an
ongoing experiment.
The case is US v.
Ortiz, 13-cr-687 (Berman)
***
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