| Imprisoned
Horge Told SDNY Judge Swain He Is Being
Used and Wants Severed Speedy Trial
By Matthew
Russell Lee, Patreon
BBC
- Guardian
UK - Honduras
- The
Source
SDNY COURTHOUSE,
Sept 10 – 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.
Horge's
court appointed lawyer Matthew
D. Myers said he might 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."
On
September 10, in another
proceeding in the case(s) that
Inner City Press covered,
Horge again spoke to Judge
Swain, saying he is being used
against "the big elephant,"
presumably meaning Scales.
The Assistant US
Attorney, on the other hand,
said that the witnesses
against Scales on the murder
charge, and Horge for what the
AUSA called his role, would be
largely the same, so the US
will oppose severing the
trials.
Then when
Horge opposed excluding time
under the Speedy Trial Act,
the US opposed that as well.
Horge said happy birthday to
his son who had turned two
years old, and who he hasn't
seen since the boy was five
months old. He thanked the
government, with sarcasm.
Inner City Press will continue
to follow this case.
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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