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SDNY COURTHOUSE, April 15 – Daniel Hernandez a/k/a Tekashi 6ix9ine was sentenced to 24 months of total imprisonment on December 18 in a proceeding live tweeted by Inner City Press before U.S. District Court Judge Paul A. Engelmayer.

   6ix9ine was ordered released by an Order that at the US' request Judge Engelmayer withheld until 4 pm on April 2, analyzed on Patreon here, 2-minute podcast here.

 On April 14 6ix9ine's initial co-defendant and bodyguard Faheem Walters asked Judge Engelmayer for compassionate release, more on Patreon here. Now Judge Engelmayer has ordered the US Attorney to respond by April 16 at 5 pm: "as to Faheem Walter on [466] LETTER MOTION addressed to Judge Paul A. Engelmayer from Edward V. Sapone dated April 14, 2020 re: Request for Compassionate Release. ENDORSEMENT: The Court has received defendant Faheem Walter's motion for compassionate release. The Court directs the Government to respond no later than 5 p.m. on Thursday, April 16, 2020. SO ORDERED. (Responses due by 4/16/2020) (Signed by Judge Paul A. Engelmayer on 4/14/2020)."

  The letter: "Dear Judge Engelmayer: I am counsel to defendant Faheem Walter in the above captioned matter. Given the extraordinary and compelling circumstances created by the ongoing coronavirus pandemic and Mr. Walter’s medical condition, I respectfully move the court pursuant to 18 U.S.C. § 3582(c)(1)(A) to reduce Mr. Walter’s term of imprisonment to time-served and impose a term of supervised release with the condition of home confinement in lieu of his unserved term of imprisonment... On April 2, 2020, in accordance with 18 U.S.C. § 3582(c), I submitted on behalf of Mr. Walter an administrative request for compassionate release to Marti Licon-Vitale, the Warden of the Metropolitan Correctional Center in Manhattan (the “MCC”), where Mr. Walter is currently being housed...

"Mr. Walter performed security for co-defendant Daniel Hernandez (Takeshi 69). In that role, he took direction principally from co-defendant Kifano Jordan, among others. While never a member of the Nine Trey Gangster Bloods, because of his close affiliation with Hernandez, Jordan, and others of his co-defendants, Mr. Walter became an “associate” of the gang, and was charged by indictment with participating in its racketeering enterprise and various actions in furtherance thereof. Mr. Walter was arrested on November 19, 2018 and charged by indictment with racketeering conspiracy, violent crimes in aid of racketeering, and possessing firearms in furtherance of those crimes of violence. He has remained continuously incarcerated since his arrest. On April 3, 2019, Mr. Walter accepted responsibility to Count 4 (18 U.S.C. §1959(a)(6)), and the lesser-included offense of Count 5 (18 U.S.C. §924(c)(1)(A)(i))) of the indictment. Both counts stemmed from Mr. Walter’s participation in an April 3, 2018 robbery of a rival hip hop artist in the entryway of a building in midtown Manhattan. Based on Mr. Walter’s presentence investigation report, his stipulated Guidelines range for Count 4 was 8 to 14 months’ imprisonment. Because Count 5 had a mandatory minimum term of 60 months’ imprisonment to run consecutively to that term, the total Guidelines Range was 68 to 74 months’ imprisonment.

On August 16, 2019, Your Honor sentenced Mr. Walter to a belowGuidelines prison term of 62 months, to be followed by three years of supervised release. Mr. Walter has served 17 months of his sentence. Shortly before his arrest in this case, on October 26, 2018, Mr. Walter suffered a gunshot wound to his abdomen. Mr. Walter was admitted to New York Presbyterian Hospital and underwent life-saving surgery where the bleeding was stopped, and he was fitted with a colostomy bag and wafer. The surgeons were forced to make an incision from Mr. Walter’s collarbone to his naval. Following surgery, that wound was not closed because of the risk of infection. Mr. Walter remained in the hospital until November 13, 2018. He was discharged to his home where he was scheduled to have a home health aide to assist in caring for his wound. Six days later, on November 19, 2018, Mr. Walter was arrested in this case. After a twoday stay at MDC Brooklyn, with an open wound in his chest, Mr. Walter was transported to Kingsbrook Jewish Medical Center in Brooklyn and admitted for continued medical care.

On November 23, 2018, Mr. Walter was transported to the hospital’s inpatient rehabilitation facility, where he was placed on a wound-vac to help close the wound in his chest. He remained hospitalized there until December 21, 2018, when he was transported back to MDC Brooklyn. Mr. Walter has used a colostomy bag for the entirety of his term of incarceration. He has been solely responsible for maintaining and cleaning his colostomy during his time at MDC Brooklyn and MCC New York. At both facilities he has had limited access to medical care, often going months without being seen by a doctor, and has often run short on necessary medical supplies for his colostomy. When the power went out for several days at the MDC, Mr. Walter, who was locked in his cell during the entire duration of the power outage, complained of blood in his colostomy bag and requested medical attention. His requests fell on deaf ears and were repeatedly ignored. After being moved to the MCC following his plea, conditions have remained largely the same. Only with the intervention of counsel has Mr. Walter received any additional medical supplies or been seen by a doctor. Despite exceeding the recommended time for use of the colostomy bag at the time of his sentencing eight months ago, Mr. Walter has still heard nothing about next steps from the BOP medical staff about removal of the colostomy. In the meantime, he has remained at MCC New York, where, because of the colostomy, he continues to face an increased risk of infection and of serious medical complications." Inner City Press will cover this.

  As to previously freed co-defendant Kintea McKenzie a/k/a Kooda B the US Attorney's Office has written: "At approximately 7:00 p.m. on March 31, the defendant was released from the MCC subject to the same conditions of the defendant’s pretrial release. On April 1, 2020 a member of the NYPD sent a clip of a video posted to a social media account that appeared to depict the defendant and several other individuals partying at the defendant’s residence shortly after the defendant arrived home. The individuals are close together, and one of the individuals appears to be smoking a marijuana cigarette and drinking an alcoholic beverage. Discussion The Court’s April 2 Order directed the Government to set forth the view of Pretrial Services (“Pretrial”) in response to the defendant’s actions. Pretrial’s response is as follows: Based on the information received, Pretrial Services believes that remand is warranted in this case. The defendant’s previous bail conditions included “no contact with any gang member.” According to the NYPD, the video in question was posted by a known gang member. The parties agreed, after learning of the defendant’s quarantine status in MCC, to modify the defendant’s release conditions to permit him to be released immediately instead of waiting for the quarantine period to end. While placement on location monitoring equipment does not control who enters the defendant’s residence, the defendant’s failure to adhere to social distancing guidelines have and will continue to alter the timeline by which any location monitoring conditions can be effectively enforced. The Court notified Mr. McKenzie that it expects scrupulous compliance with all conditions of release. Pretrial Services believes that the defendant has demonstrated the opposite and that his bail should be revoked. The Government shares Pretrial’s frustration with the defendant’s conduct. The defendant used his asthma diagnosis in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic to seek release from the MCC. As set forth in the Government’s opposition to the defendant’s motion for bail, the Government was skeptical of the severity of the defendant’s purported asthma condition because, during his July 12, 2019 interview with the Probation Department, the defendant did not report any medical conditions nor did he report taking any medication. The defendant’s reckless behavior immediately following his release put himself and others at danger and undermined the primary reason supporting Court’s rationale granting his release: to allow the defendant to distance himself from others in an effort to avoid contracting COVID-19.1   1 Pretrial’s recommendation for remand relies in part on an NYPD officer’s report to Pretrial that the individual who posted the video online is a known gang member. At this time, the Government does not have sufficient information to opine on whether the individual posting the video is a gang member."

 On delaying docketing of the order to free #6ix9ine, AUSA Longyear wrote, "Delayed docketing of the Order will allow law enforcement agents to ensure that Mr. Hernandez is transported safely and securely from the facility where he is currently housed to a residential address previously approved by the Probation Department (the “Residence”). The Government will alert the Court as soon as Mr. Hernandez has arrived at the Residence, at which time the Government will have no objection to Order being publicly filed. The Government respectfully submits that delayed docketing of the Order for a short period of time will ensure the safety of law enforcement agents and Mr. Hernandez upon his release from custody. The Government has consulted with Lance Lazzaro, counsel for Mr. Hernandez, who consents to this request."

 Inner City Press reported, other others picked up with credit, that on March 22 Hernandez / 69's lawyer Lance Lazzaro asked Judge Engelmayer to order his client released citing his asthma and shortness of breath, Coronavirus and the case in the MDC in Brooklyn (although 69 is it seems in the private contractor GEO facility in Queens, the adherence to BOP protocol and inclusion in its COVID-19 statistics is not clear).

  On March 25 Judge Engelmayer issued a ruling, denying the request but instructing the Bureau of Prisons what he would have ruled, if he'd known of Coronavirus. But Lazzaro argued that his client is structurally unable to request relief for BOP, without the US Attorney's Office consenting in some way.

  Now on the evening of March 31 Inner City Press can report that Lazzaro, though another, made a final plea to the BOP, which turned him down:

From: "Shannon Robbins" at bop.gov Subject: Re: Daniel Hernadez #86335-054 Date: March 31, 2020 at 1:52:52 PM EDT To: "Elis Pacheco"

Mr. Pacheco, Mr. Hernandez is currently housed at the GEO facility in the custody of the US Marshals Service. We do not have any authority or oversight of his case as he is not in a BOP facility. If the Court orders a compassionate release for him, that information will be provided to the US Marshals Service and the GEO facility for processing. I am hopeful this information will be helpful. Shannon Shannon Robbins, Section Chief Designation and Sentence Computation Center 346 Marine Forces Drive Grand Prairie, Texas 75051

 So Lazzaro has renewed his appeal to Judge Engelmayer: " BOP has now denied Mr. Hernandez’s administrative request for compassionate release. As per the attached e-mail dated March 31, 2020, Section Chief Shannon Robbins with BOP’sDesignation and Sentence Computation Center, Mr. Hernandez’s administrative request to BOP for compassionate release was denied because as a non-BOP inmate, BOP is refusing to grant Mr. Hernandez compassionate release. According to 18 U.S.C. § 3582(c), a court may, upon a finding of extraordinary and compelling circumstances, reduce the prison term of a defendant’s sentence if BOP has denied compassionate release after the defendant has exhausted all administrative remedies with BOP. Accordingly, in this case, your Honor now has the statutory authority to modify Mr. Hernandez’s sentence so as to immediately release him from prison."

Inner City Press covered the trial Hernandez testified at, and the other sentencings in the case and will continue to. The case is US v. Jones, 18-cr-834 (Engelmayer). More on Patreon here.

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