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By Matthew Russell Lee, Exclusive, Patreon

SDNY COURTHOUSE, June 21 – Hector Lebron was sent to U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York in April by Northern District of Ohio Judge James G. Carr - and then was forgotten for more than two months in the Metropolitan Correctional Center in lower Manhattan.

  On SDNY Magistrate Judge Sarah Netburn began what her Deputy said was the last case of the day by asking when the defendant before her came into SDNY custody. The answer was surprising: Lebron was "writted over" on April 24, from a Federal court in Ohio, had been forgotten since then and now should have a hearing before SDNY District Judge Alison Nathan, date not yet set.

  Inner City Press was the only media in the Magistrates Court and strained forward to hear the number of the case, but none was given. Only afterward was it able on the PACER terminal in the SDNY Press Room to find a Judge Nathan case involving Hector Lebron. But this once dated back to February 2014, with Lebron on Supervised Release until October 31, 2018, signed by then SDNY Judge Mary M. Lisi and Magistrate Ronald L. Ellis.

   Further research by Inner City Press found an April 6, 2019 order by Judge James G. Carr Sr. of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Ohio that Lebron by remanded to the custody of the U.S. Marshall and transferred to a "facility as close to New York as possible."

  The MCC is right next to the SDNY courthouses and the U.S. Attorney's Office. But no one knew Lebron was there for two months. On June 21 in the empty Mag Court the Assistant U.S. Attorney said his colleague, on trial, had only seen the e-mail the night before.

  Judge Netburn said she would investigate it, and told Mr. Lebron she wasn't sure it was her apology to make. More on Patreon, here. Will he be given extra credit or have time taken off his sentence, like those who were in the MDC during the black-out over the winter? The first thing would be to provide the number of these cases, and to stop holding secret sentencings.Magistrate Judge Sarah Netburn

While many even most cases in the SDNY Magistrates Court of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York are sealed intentionally, on June 21 before Lebron a defendant said to be negotiating a plea was presented, leading up to an appearance next week before a District Judge. Inner City Press will have more on all this.

 On June 19 Judge Netburn, who the previous day sealed and delayed docketing on a money laundering case from New Jersey completing the tri-state trifecta, told defendant Ricardo Reynoso about a program she and another SDNY judge (apparently SDNY Chief Judge Collen McMahon) run. It is called Young Adult Opportunity Program.

Because Inner City Press is not *only* about pushing for transparency, for example of the a suddenly sealed sentencing before Judge Lorna G. Schofield on June 17, we link to this program here. It's all to the good. So is transparency, including on warrants. We'll have more on this.

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