| Ezika
Pleaded Guilty But Now On Third Lawyer
Wanted To Withdraw Plea But Denied in SDNY
By Matthew
Russell Lee, Patreon
BBC
- Guardian
UK - Honduras
- ESPN
SDNY COURTHOUSE,
Jan 28 – Okechukwu Peter Ezika
entered a guilty plea in
January 2019 to "engaging in
monetary transactions in
property derived from
specified unlawful
activity."
Now he is
trying to withdraw his
plea.
On January 28, U.S. District
Court for the Southern
District of New York Judge
Katherine Polk Failla held a
lengthy proceeding. Inner City
Press covered it.
Ezika is having to say that
what he previously pled to
under oath was false.
He has changed
lawyers, twice, and his
current lawyer on January 27
said delicately that sometimes
defendants are coached what to
say by their counsel.
Judge
Failla said she would not
return the plea for such
minutae as Ezika calling her
Your Majesty or Mrs. Failla.
But she
inquired with the AUSA what
the prejudice would be to
them. They stopped their
investigation in light of the
plea.
Judge
Failla, with another
proceeding coming onto
CourtCall at 11 am (in fact,
it did not), said she will
soon issue an oral ruling.
And Judge
Failla convened another
conference on February 2, to
read her ruling. Inner City
Press covered it. Running
through the applicable legal
standards, Judge Failla said
she found no basis to find
ineffective assistance of
counsel or any other ground to
allow for the withdrawal of
the guilty plea. Next step
will be sentencing.
The case is US v.
Ezeji, 18-cr-117 (Failla)
***
Your
support means a lot. As little as $5 a month
helps keep us going and grants you access to
exclusive bonus material on our Patreon
page. Click
here to become a patron.
Feedback:
Editorial [at] innercitypress.com
SDNY Press Room 480, front cubicle
500 Pearl Street, NY NY 10007 USA
Mail: Box 20047, Dag
Hammarskjold Station NY NY 10017
Reporter's mobile (and weekends):
718-716-3540
Other, earlier Inner City Press are
listed here,
and some are available in the ProQuest
service, and now on Lexis-Nexis.
Copyright 2006-2021 Inner City
Press, Inc. To request reprint or other
permission, e-contact Editorial [at]
innercitypress.com
|
,
