In
Rep Chris Collins SEC Case
Motions Due Month After
Broderick Rules After Making
Trump Joke
By Matthew
Russell Lee, more on Patreon
here
SDNY COURTHOUSE,
May 11 – Congressman
Christopher Collins (R-NY)
waived his right to be present
for a May 3 hearing in the
criminal insider trading case
against him held past 5 pm in
the U.S.
District Court
for the
Southern
District of
New York
courtroom of
Judge Vernon
S. Broderick.
On May 10, Judge
Broderick
started on
l'affaire
Collins at 2
pm, after a
case against
BuzzFeed
(Inner City
Press coverage
here).
Early in
the
proceeding,
before two
shackled inmates
were led in leading
to a brief
suspension of
the white
shoe SEC
Congressman
matter, Broderick
made a joke
about Donald
Trump and
evasive legal
moves. I'm not
going there, said
one of the
participants in
Collins, who was an
early endorser
of Trump.
Broderick
said, "I
should have either
- but it is
what it is."
Three hours
later, during
which Inner
City Press in
full
disclosure
went one story
down in the courthouse
to cover
a Fatico
hearing about
threats in the
MCC, Judge
Broderick
was setting
the time for
Collins'
lawyers to
make motions.
He arrived
on four weeks
after he rules
on discovery, with
the SEC to
provide
whatever he
directs to the
defense one
week after the
ruling. I'm
not saying
you're going
to get anything, Judge
Broderick
said. Collins'
lead lawyer
said he is a
optimist. More on
Patreon;
watch this
site.
Collins' team
of lawyers
have made a
slew of
suggestions to
Judge
Broderick on
what discovery
to seek from
the U.S.
Attorney's
office, from
communications
with the SEC
to information
about real
estate,
Cameron
Collins and
Lauren Zarsky
and their
sales of
Immunotherapeutics
stock after
MIS416, aimed
at secondary
multiple
sclerosis,
failed the
Drug Trial and
Rep Collins
made his calls
from the White
House
Congressional
picnic.
On May 3 Judge
Broderick was
urging wide
disclosure by
the
government,
whether
characterized
as 3500
material or
under Brady or
Giglio. The
notes to be
produced, he
said, didn't
have to been
entirely
contemporaneous.
He
had a series of
questions for
the U.S.
Attorney which
he did not get
through as it
approached 6
p.m. and his
courtroom deputy
had gone for the
day.
Collins' lead
lawyer from
BakerHostetler,
Jonathan R.
Barr, directed
Broderick to a
decision by
SDNY Judge Jed
Rakoff during
the Gumpta
case, and
Broderick said
that he would
read it. He
confessed he
had himself
looked up
applicable
cases on
Westlaw,
adding that he
might have
missed some
cases.
This case
is USA
v. Collins, et
al.,
18-cr-00567
(VSB). More on
Patreon,
here.
Judge
Broderick told
Collins'
lawyers to
expect to come
back in a
week's time on
Friday, May
10. One of
them said he
would only be
returning to
the United
States that
morning;
another said
that he then
would be
leaving for
the same place
his colleague
had been:
Argentina.
Thus
is big money,
and big
politics, law
done in the
SDNY.
One
story down and just two days
before but as if in another
universe on May 1 defendant
Jesus Lopez walked into the
SDNY courtroom of Judge
Valerie E. Caproni to be
sentenced on May 1 for driving
10 kilograms of cocaine from
California to New York.
He was
wearing a suit; he had been
allowed out on bond while
awaiting sentencing due to his
mother having Stage Four
cancer. Before the sentencing
he uploaded a video directed
at Judge Caproni but still
online as of this writing on
Vimeo, here.
The
courtroom was full, with two
U.S. Marshals in the back row,
and the two front rows, Inner
City Press was later informed
by a participant in the
proceeding, filled by judges
from China. Lopez' lawyer Jeff
Greco argued in his sentencing
submission for time served,
essentially one month.
But Judge
Caproni, after asking
Assistant U.S. Attorney Nathan
Rhen why the government wasn't
seeking forfeiture of the
truck Lopez used to drive the
drugs - "there's a lot of
equity in there," she said --
looked sternly at Lopez.
Judge Caproni was not
impressed by Lopez' statement
that he took drugs because he
was bored, that boredom was
one of his triggers. She said
she did not believe that he
had only agreed to drive the
drugs in order to feed his own
habit. First she sentenced him
to 60 month, five years, in
prison.
Then as
the U.S. Marshals rustled in
the row behind Inner City
Press, she said she would be
remanding Lopex into custody
today. Right now. Her
courtroom deputy handed the
Marshals an order to that
effect.
Defense attorney Greco said
that Lopez' mother could die
at any time, and that the
Bureau of Prisons would be
unlikely to let him out to
attend her funeral. Judge
Caproni said there was no way
to know when his mother would
die, and that she had allowed
him to remain out on bond
pending sentencing so he could
spent time with her. The
Chinese judges sat as Jesus
Lopez took his wallet out of
his pants and put his hands
out for shackling.
A well known
courtroom
artist in the
SDNY has told
Inner City
Press about
the time she
managed to
sketch a
similar remand
of a higher
profile
defendant,
Bernie Madoff.
But there was
no artist
present for
the remand of
Jesus Lopez,
and cameras
are not
allowed - only
this article.
The case is U.S.
v. Lopez,
part of the
larger
conspiracy
prosecution U.S.
v. Soto et al.,
18-cr-00282
(Caproni).
Notably one
floor above in
40
Foley Square,
a man who pled
guilty to
stealing $7
million in
Medicare and
Medicaid fraud
has had his
sentencing
delayed for a
year already,
and perhaps
another year,
so that his
wife can
finish a
medical
residency
program. That
case is U.S
v. Javed,
16-cr-00601-VSB.
Unlike the
unpublicized
case of Jesus
Lopez,
the Office of
the US
Attorney for
the SDNY
announced the
Javed
sentencing to
the press (but
not its
subsequent
deferral).
Click here
for that
story.
Which approach
is the right
one? How can
these
disparities be
explained?
These are
among the
questions that
Inner City
Press will be
pursuing, in
the SDNY.
Watch this
site, and the
new @SDNYLIVE
Twitter feed.
Background: Even
in Judge Caproni's courtroom,
there are more positive or
lenient stories. When Todd
Howe, who pled guilty in the
New York State corruption
case(s), came up for
sentencing on April 5, Judge
Caproni was
told that Howe
is now working
more than 12
hours a day in
Idaho, on ski
slopes and now
a golf course.
After his
guilty plea he
had been
remanded to
the
Metropolitan
Correctional
Center when he
disputed to
Capital One
some credit
card charges
and the
government
believed it to
be another
attempted
fraud.
With
him out of MCC
for seven
months, Judge
Caproni said
it may have
just been a
mistake. She
put off
sentencing
Howe, instead
putting him on
five years
probation. If
he "stays
clean" during
that time, it
all goes away.
If not, he
faces serious
time.
In the
elevator down
after Howe's
lawyer, in
what she
called her
last criminal
sentencing,
said Howe
still respects
government
service after
his lobbying
career
meltdown,
Inner City
Press asked
Howe what he
thought for
example of
congestion
pricing. He
laughed and
said it is not
needed in
Idaho.
Meanwhile a
shackled
prisoner Jones
was led into
Judge
Caproni's now
empty
courtroom to
plead guilty
to selling
crack in The
Bronx and
hiding a gun
after a 1999
felony
conviction.
That
sentencing is
set for August
1. Inner City
Press and @SDNYLIVE will be there.
***
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