Defendant Horge Told SDNY Judge Swain
He Needed To Email Scales Now Son Writes
Judge
By Matthew
Russell Lee, Patreon
BBC
- Guardian
UK - Honduras
- The
Source
SDNY COURTHOUSE,
July 20 – Defendant Ernest
Horge back on February 27 said
in open court that it is
unfair he is in the same case
as a man now set to be charged
with capital murder, Sidney
Scales.
Then,
Horge's court appointed lawyer
Matthew D. Myers said he may
soon make a motion for
severance of the cased, but he
has a trial on the other side
of the country first.
Months
later on May 28 amid the
COVID-19 pandemic, Horge and
Myers and others appeared
virtual before Judge Laura
Taylor Swain. Inner City Press
again covered it.
Scales will not, in fact, face
the death penalty. Horge said
he needs the chance to
communicate with him, to avoid
misunderstandings. CJA lawyer
Myers spokes vaguely about
family member contacts and of
his talks with the U.S.
Attorney's Office about a
pre-trial disposition. Horge
spoke for himself, as before,
and asked for release on
medical grounds. It was not
granted. The next telephone
conference was set for July.
On July 20
Inner City Press covered Judge
Swain's proceeding in the
case, on Scales. It emerged
that Horge's son has written
to the Judge, stating "My
father was a good man, he
always support the family, he
provided food and clothes for
me and my brother. I wanna to
ask, How long do my father
Ernest horge has to do time
for press respond back, I'm
really worry about him and I
miss him so much."
Judge Swain's chambers wrote
back that the Judge "is not in
a position to respond to your
question." Judge Swain has an
upcoming proceeding with
Horge. Watch this site.
Back in
February in an in-person
proceeding in the gallery
where Inner City Press was the
only media were family members
of both defendants, including
a small child running around
with a pacifer.
Previous Horge
and Myers described
non-functional computers to
review discovery in the MCC,
requiring him to print out
nine inches of documents from
a hard drive the US Attorney's
Office provided him.
U.S.
District Court for the
Southern District of New York
Judge Laura Taylor Swain, who
has also received handwritten
letters from Horge's family
members and filed them in the
docket after redacting
children's names, patiently
asked Horge about his
medication. On February 27 she
urged him to speak less.
But
Horge had more to say. He
insisted that the gun was
found in someone else's room,
in someone else's apartment.
He said the prosecutors, here
represented by AUSA Frank
Balsamello, were just "using
924(c) as a bargaining tool."
He said everybody loves him,
he has a great sense of humor.
He rhymed Prosecutors lying
and kids crying, and called
the whole situation a "Star
Spangled Banner blueprint for
genocide."
That said,
the case will continue, with a
conference on February 27 -
the one Inner City Press
attended. Now there's a delay
for capital case review in DC.
The case is US v. Horge,
19-cr-96 (Swain).
***
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