| Horge
Asked SDNY For Severance From Scales
As Trial Looms Evaluation Delayed 15 Days
By Matthew
Russell Lee, Patreon
BBC
- Guardian
UK - Honduras
- The
Source
SDNY COURTHOUSE,
March 24 – 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
virtually before U.S. District
Court for the Southern
District of New York Judge
Laura Taylor Swain. Inner City
Press again covered it, below.
On November 11,
Veterans Day, the US
Attorney's Office announced a
superseding indictment that
formally charges Scales with
murder, and keeps Horge linked
to him: "In the Superseding
Indictment, SCALES is charged
with causing another person to
shoot at rival drug dealers on
June 9, 2017, in the vicinity
of 1135 East Tremont Avenue in
the Bronx, New York, causing
the death of Joshua
Lopez. SCALES and HORGE
are also charged in the
Superseding Indictment with
engaging in multiple specific
drug sales between November
2018 and February 2019, in
addition to the narcotics
conspiracy charged in the
initial indictment." The case
was reassigned to Judge Jed S.
Rakoff, the docket said.
On March
17, Judge Rakoff held a 4 pm
proceeding, after presiding
for the whole day over the
Eaze trial, in the same large
courtroom. Scales was present,
but Horge was not. He was
unceremoniously moved out, for
evaluation. Some of those
close to him have reached out
with questions.
So, this
update, docketed on March 24:
"ENDORSED LETTER as to
(19-Cr-96-2) Ernest Horge
addressed to Judge Jed S.
Rakoff from David Paul,
Warden, dated March 15, 2021
re: Due to modified operations
arising from health
precautions for institution
staff and the inmate
population, we are
respectfully requesting an
extension which would allow us
an additional 15 days to
complete the evaluation. Under
such a time frame, the
evaluation would be completed
by April 8, 2021, and a report
would be available the Court
by May 6, 2021. ENDORSEMENT:
SO ORDERED."
There has
been, from the beginning of
this case, some lack of
transparency. But what will
Judge Rakoff's recent order
that the US Attorney's Office
should make trial exhibits
available publicly by midnight
of the trial day they are
introduced, that may change.
Previously 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."
The case is US v.
Horge, 19-cr-96
(Rakoff).
***
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