| In Trial of Accused Slasher
of Witness Neck Not Guilty on Conspiracy But
Guilty on Retaliation
By Matthew
Russell Lee, Patreon
BBC
- Guardian
UK - Honduras
- The
Source
SDNY COURTHOUSE,
April 26 – Christian Nieves
has been on trial on witness
tampering charges. The
complaint said that Nieves and
his co-defendant Elias Polanco
conspired to slash an
individual across the neck in
retaliation for his testimony
in a federal criminal trial.
Now Inner
City Press which exclusively
covered the case and trial can
report: while Nieves was found
guilty on witness retaliation,
he and Polanco were both found
not guilty on conspiracy to
commit witness retaliation.
Verdict sheet here.
Back on
August 11, 2020 U.S. District
Court for the Southern
District of New York Judge Jed
S. Rakoff held a proceeding.
Inner City Press covered it,
and the pre-trial conferences
since.
On April 15
in the large courtroom on the
26th floor of 500 Pearl
Street, Judge Rakoff took
counsel into the side room for
a sidebar. Then Federal
Defenders cross examined a
witness about his interviews
in March 2021 with prosecutors
and an NYPD detective, about
selling "bananas" -- percocet
-- bought outside pharmacies,
and deleting 20 out of 23 text
messages.
On April 16 the
witness was still being
cross-examined, about what he
told registered nurse Benny
Matthews in Montefiore
Hospital on February 5, 2019.
Also there in the hospital,
and now in the courtroom, was
Detective Paul Jeselson.
Can he be both a
fact and expert witness?
Judge
Rakoff said the trial is fun
for this kind of question,
then joked he must be sick to
find this fun. No, it's
interesting: the argument
ranged from hypotheticals
about John Gotti punching a
neighbor to burst pipes in
Yonkers to the girlfriend as
car mechanic line in My Cousin
Vinny.
On April 19
Jeselson took the stand, and
on direct described and
interpreted the gang's hand
signs. As cross examination
began he was asked of the
difference between cooperators
and Confidential Informants,
and if the latter were
committing crimes in
partnership with the
government.
Judge Rakoff
questioned the relevance, to
the testimony give.
On April 20,
before the charging
conference, Judge Rakoff ruled
that only Charges 1 and 4
remain and will no longer be
numbered in the jury
instruction. The closing
arguments are being prepared,
as Judge Rakoff prepares to
give a speech to youth at the
request of one of his past
Courtroom Deputies. That's how
those Chambers work.
The trial
continues toward its
conclusion, with at least
three others starting this
week and this
one already in 40 Foley.
This case is US
v. Nieves, 19-cr-354 (Rakoff)
***
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