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By Matthew Russell Lee, Exclusive, Patreon
Honduras - The Source - The Root - etc

SDNY COURTHOUSE, Dec 14 – Racism in federal law enforcement in the Southern District of New York was alleged and argued on October 31, with five defendants in shackles and Inner City Press the only media in the SDNY courtroom of Judge Jed S. Rakoff. Only Inner City Press reported it at that time, here.

  On December 14, another media reported on the case, here, amid the daily drum beat of other prosecutions and guilty pleas untouched by this one case. We'll have more on this.

 In the issue and statistics in that multi-defendant case is an asserted disparity by race in the targeting by law enforcement in the SDNY of reverse sting operations.

  On November 5 in yet another sting operation Robert Adriano Pena pled guilty to conspiracy to commit Hobbs Act robbery before SDNY Judge Edgardo Ramos. In the briefing plea allocution there was mention of the case or issues before Judge Rakoff. It seems Pena did not get a plea deal, because pleading only to count 1, conspiracy. The case is US v. Pena, 18-cr-844-1 (Ramos).

 Pena's alleged co-conspirator Jose Martinez-Rentas already pled guilty. He then replead in light of the Supreme Court's decision in US v. Davis. But again, no mention of the case before Judge Rakoff.

  Is the assertion and litigation of the disparity a windfall, potentially, for some defendants but not others? Inner City Press will continue to cover these cases - and these issues.

    Back on October 31, Judge Rakoff asked lead attorney Christopher Flood whether the racial disparities he and his colleague are alleging are, in fact, statistically significant.

   Passed to Judge Rakoff via his deputy was the declaration of Profession Crystal S. Yang asserting "the racial composition of targeted individuals in DEA reverse-sting stash house cases brought in the SDNY" for the past ten years: "46 operations targeted 179 individuals of whom zero are White, two are Asian and 177 are Latino or Black." This is followed by regression analysis.

     Assistant US Attorney Domenic Gentile, alone at the prosecutor's table, doggedly returned to these particular defendants wearing face masks, and having been recruited through the lead defendant, Flood's client.

    Judge Rakoff said it was interesting, but how was it relevant? He committed to issuing an order on Flood et al's discovery motion by November 12, if only in bottom-line form, in advance of a March 2020 trial. The other defense attorneys on the discovery motion include Jennifer Luo, Michael Tremonte, John Diaz, Stephanie Carvlin, Xavier Donaldson, Dawn Cardi, and the omnipresent Calvin Scholar.

The case is USA v. Lopez et al., 19-cr-323 (Rakoff). Inner City Press will continue to report on this case, and on these issues.