| In SDNY Heroin Defendant Van
Manen Found Guilty While Charlton Acquitted
Sandy Sob Story Precluded
By Matthew
Russell Lee, @SDNYLIVE
SDNY COURTHOUSE,
May 17 – In a detailed heroin
dealing prosecution stretching
from Staten Island to Brooklyn
and New Jersey, but prosecuted
in the U.S.
District Court
for the
Southern
District of
New York in
Manhattan, on
May 14 the
government
rested its
case with a
slew of
exhibits about
the
defendants'
telephone
practices,
motel stays in
the Circle
Lodge Motel,
and the
amounts of
grams in
bundles of 10
glassine
envelopes,
some cut with
fentanyl.
Two days
later, one
defendant
found guilty
while the
other was
acquitted: "A
unanimous jury
convicted VAN
MANEN after an
eight-day
trial before
United States
District Judge
Paul A.
Crotty.
Kenneth
Charlton, who
was tried with
VAN MANEN, was
acquitted of
the charge
against
him.
U.S. Attorney
Geoffrey S.
Berman
said:
'As proven at
trial, Paul
Van Manen
peddled poison
to the
community of
Staten Island
and its
vicinity,
causing one of
his many
victims to die
from a tragic
overdose,
despite
knowing of a
non-fatal
overdose just
two months
earlier from
the group’s
drugs.
Today’s
verdict should
send a message
to those who
flood our
community’s
streets with
lethal
drugs.
We will
continue to
work with our
law
enforcement
partners to
prosecute and
convict
criminals
seeking to
profit from
the current
public health
crisis
afflicting our
city.'" Both
defendants had
an air of
victim about
them.
When
one took the
stand and
tried to
testify how
Hurricane
Sandy impacted
him, the
government
objected. Also
to the
defendant's
attempts to
retox, rehab
and get clean.
Likeness to
the effect of
his addition
on his
relation with
his family.
Anything that
might humanize
the defendant
was objected
to, and in
most cases
Judge Paul A.
Crotty
sustained the
objections.
The
jury, however,
seemed more
interested
with each
sustained
objection. The
case is USA v.
Paul Van Manen
and Kenneth
Charlton,
18-cr-30
(PAC).
Back on May 9
three residents of Estonia
just extradited to the United
States on drug charges were
arraigned on May 9 in the SDNY
Magistrate's
courtroom,
presided over
for the week
by Magistrate
Judge Kevin
Ona Wang.
According
to the U.S.
Attorney,
"Estonian
residents
JEVGENI BOKOV,
VIKTOR
LITVINTSUK,
AMID
MAGERRAMOV,
NIKOLAI
NIFTALIJEV,
and VITALI
VORONJUK have
been charged
in an
Indictment
filed in
Manhattan
federal court
with narcotics
trafficking
and money
laundering
offenses,
including
conspiracy to
import
carfentanil
and fentanyl
into the
United
States."
According to
the Complaint,
at Paragraph
26a,
"carfentenil
is used
commercially
to tranquilize
large animals
such as
elephants and
rhinoceroses."
Three
of the men
appeared in
shackles in
the Mag Court
on May 9, with
Inner City
Press the only
media present.
Each had a CJA
lawyer (one
was involved
in a Nine Trey
Gangsta Bloods
guilty plea
allocution
earlier in the
day, here);
they shared an
interpreter.
Viktor
Litvintsuk,
represented by
the Federal
Defenders, had
asked SDNY
Judge J. Paul
Oetken for an
adjourment
until May 17
in order to
attempt to
work out a
disposition.
Now
that court
date will
involve the
three who
appeared
shackled in
Mag Court on
May 9. Inner
City Press
will be there
- watch this
site.
The
U.S.
Attorney's put
out a press
release before
the men were
arraigned
before
Magistrate
Judge Wang,
without saying
when it would
be, on the
same day it
held a press
call about
North Korea
sanctions, here....
At
the start of
the Mag Court
week on May 6
in the
courtroom,
along with
Inner City
Press as the
only media,
were Defendant
Canales and
his lawyer,
the Assistant
U.S. Attorney
and a
colleague, two
court security
officers, and
Judge Wang and
her Deputy.
Canales'
lawyer said
that the trend
is toward
decriminalizing
marijuana,
"especially in
New York." But
Judge Wang
pointed out
that on a
VOSR, the
burder shifts
to the
defendant, who
had not
carried it
this time.
The offer to
have the girl
friend or wife
sign a bond
did not
convince Judge
Wang, as it
was also said
the girlfriend
or wife had
misled the
marshals who
went to arrest
her husband or
boyfriend. And
so it goes in
Magistrate
Court - we may
have more on
this case this
week, amid a
few new
trials. For
now, one note
on best
practice in
Mag Court:
Deputies
should
announce the
names and
identifying
numbers of the
cases before
them. Watch
this
site.
A week before
Inner City
Press has
tried to cover
a Magistrates'
Court case
announced by
the Office of
the US
Attorney,
involving
"John Lambert
– the
defendant is
charged with
perpetrating a
scheme to
defraud
consumers of
legal advice
and services
by falsely
representing
that he is an
experienced
attorneys who
had attended
elite law
schools, when
in fact he is
not attorneys
and had never
attended law
school – in
Magistrate
court
(courtroom
5A)." But that
courtroom was
locked at 10
am, and at
10:45 am. The
Office
politely
informed Inner
City Press
just after
Lambert was
presented and
before he left
the
courthouse. We
will try to
follow this
case, and the
several
appointments
of counsel and
other
proceedings
that occurred
before Judge
Fox on the
first day of
his week
presiding in
Mag Court.
***
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