| On Dean Skelos SDNY Judge Wood Set to
Unseal While Adam Skelos Wants Out of
Danbury FCI
By Matthew
Russell Lee, Patreon
BBC
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SDNY COURTHOUSE,
April 10 – Convicted Long
Island politician Dean Skelos
has two more years on his
sentence at Otisville
Federal Correctional
Institution.
Amid the
Coronavirus crisis, he asked
U.S. District Court for the
Southern District of New York
Judge Kimba M. Wood for
compassionate release. But he
made his filing confidential;
we now await its unsealing on
a ruling that had been
expected by 4:30 pm on April
9.
While
still awaiting that, on April
10 Dean Skelos' son Adam has
asked Judge Wood to be release
from detention in Danbury:
"Re: United States v. Dean
Skelos and Adam Skelos Case
No. 15-cr-317 (KMW) Dear Judge
Wood, We represent Adam Skelos
in the appeal of the above
matter by appointment of the
CJA panel. On his behalf, we
respectfully move the Court
pursuant to 18 U.S.C. §
3582(c)(1)(A) to allow him to
finish the remaining portion
of his prison sentence on home
confinement. This change in
his sentence would allow him
to protect himself and others
from the disease caused by the
2019 novel coronavirus
(“COVID-19”) by sheltering in
place at his residence. In
recent weeks, COVID-19 has
caused an unprecedented global
public health crisis. As of
April 9, 2020, 427,460
Americans have contracted
COVID-19, and 14,696 have died
from it.1 Prisons have
not been spared: hundreds of
COVID-19 cases have been
confirmed in local, state and
federal jails and prisons,
though the actual figure is
almost certainly higher
because of
underreporting.2 There
are currently 36 inmates and
15 staff at Danbury FCI
(“Danbury”) with confirmed
cases of COVID-19 and we
believe that those who are
infected with the disease are
more widespread than
previously announced." Watch
this site.
On April 3
in a telephone conference
Judge Wood grilled Skelos'
lawyers on why he is not
instead applying for bailing
pending appeal.
Assistant US Attorney Thomas
McKay called this very
telling, indictive that
Skelos' real concern is not
the possibility of getting
COVID-19 at Otisville but
instead using the crisis to
get his sentence
eliminated.
As to
compassionate release, as
Inner City Press has been
reporting this week in a
decision by SDNY Judge Andrew
L. Carter
and another pending from Judge
P. Kevin Castel,
there is a strong argument
that exhaustion of
administrative remedies is
required before a federal
District judge would grant
release. (Judge Castels
confirmed that on April 6
here.)
Skelos only
applied to the Bureau of
Prisons in late March, and BOP
has thirty days to
rule. Judge Wood
directed Skelos' lawyers to
address by Tuesday the
question of why they are not
asking for bailing pending
appeal.
On April 6
past 5 pm Skelos' lawyers
replied that "any time spent
out on bail pending appeal
would not count as time served
against Mr. Skelos'
sentence... Mr Skelos decided
it was in his best interest
not to seek bail pending
appeal.. Scientists are at
least 18 months away from an
effective mass produced
vaccination" for COVID-19.
They cited CNN. Watch this
site.
Inner City Press will
continue to report on this
case. It is US v. Skelos,
15-cr-317 (Wood).
***
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