Edwin Alamo With Asthma In
MCC Pleads Guilty But Sentencing Not Until
July 22
By Matthew
Russell Lee, Patreon
BBC
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SDNY COURTHOUSE,
June 3 – Edwin Alamo, a
25-year old Bronxite with
asthma incarcerated in lower
Manhattan in the Metropolitan
Correctional Center amid the
Coronavirus pandemic, had an
hour-long bail hearing on
April 7 before U.S. District
Court for the Southern
District of New York Judge
Richard M. Berman.
Alamo could not easily have
been before a more sympathetic
judge. After one of his
relatives described Alamo
trying to get treatment for
asthma at Einstein Hospital in
The Bronx in February 2019,
Judge Berman called the whole
situation heartbreaking and
tragic.
But unlike
for example cooperator Daniel
Hernandez a/k/a Tekashi
#6ix9ine, also with asthma,
and unlike convicted OneCoin
money launderer Mark Scott,
Edwin Alamo was not released.
On June 3,
Alamo appeared by phone before
Judge Berman to plead guilty.
His lawyer Bennett Epstein
said he would prefer video,
but would leave it up to his
client.
Judge
Berman said that video is
better, and said the MCC and
MDC should have rooms for
this, going forward, and for
attorney client meetings.
After a
possible new date of June 15
was offered, Alamo said he
wanted to do it immediately,
to get the ball rolling and
get out of the COVID-filled
jail.
He
recounted that he went to high
school on Jennings Street. He
pled guilty and the earliest
he can be sentenced is July
22. Inner City Press will
continue on this case.
Back
on April 7 after Assistant US
Attorney Daniel Wolf
questioned the relative about
the walk-up apartment building
in which Alamo would be
staying, and his failure to
fill his prescription for an
asthma pump (the relative said
he has not health insurance),
the legal standard was not
met.
Judge
Berman found both that Alamo
if released would present a
danger to the community, and a
risk of flight given the
amount of time he faces on
drug courier and other
charges. Recidivism
also, in fairness, was an
issue, perhaps the dispostive
one.
His next
hearing, at which unlike this
one he will perhaps be
present, is set for May 7. The
case is US v. Alamo, 19-cr-640
(Berman).
***
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