| Of
Guilty Pleas
Given Back and
Cell Phone
Gashes During
Luigi Mangione
Day Off
by
Matthew Russell Lee,
Substack
Book Patreon
100
CENTRE STREET,
Dec 3 – After handing a
request to unseal Luigi
Mangione exhibits to a clerk
of NYS Justice Gregory Carro,
on December 3 Inner City Press
remained in his courtroom all
day awaiting action on the
letter. It came, such as it
was, at the end.
But before
that, a wave of crimes and
stories and tragedies and
whispered sidebars and even
moments of mercy and justice.
We'll start with three, with
more to follow.
One
early case was of a man for
whom Justice Carro had issued
a bench warrant back on
November 19. Now his defense
lawyers said he had missed his
previous court date "because
his aunt died."
"Did he call you?" Justice
Carro asked. "Do you have any
evidence of
that?" She
did not. Justice Carro
addressed the defendant
directly. "Sir, I am going to
give you back your plea." He
had pleaded guilty back on
September 18. Now that deal
was off the table. He was
remanded to jail.
Soon
thereafter was a man whose
lawyer said all he had done
was steal paper towels from an
apartment building. The ADA
countered that when a resident
tried to stop him, the
defendant hit the resident in
the face "with a stolen cell
phone." That was apparently
one step too far. His $10,000
cash bail remained in place,
and he in
jail.
Next, the
rare mercy. The defendant, now
in jail, had lived in the NYC
homeless shelter system since
2010, he said. He finally has
in place a housing voucher -
but it expires on January 1;
he will lose it if he is still
incarcerated.
His crime? Kicking in the
glass vestibule of a bank
branch. The defendant said, I
made a stupid mistake. But I
stayed on the scene. I didn't
try to run away.
The problem
was, to be sentenced would
require a report. Justice
Carro, after hearing directly
from the defendant, got the
prosecutor to agree to a
lesser sentence.
Second
problem: the defendant was
concerned that if he were
released directly from 100
Centre Street, he would get
arrested again for having no
identification
papers. Justice
Carro sentenced him to three
more days on Rikers Island,
telling him to make sure to
recover his confiscated wallet
and ID before he leaves. Call
it a Christmas
miracle.
More,
including comparison to
Justice Carro's current main
case, on X for Subscribers
here and Substack here
Luigi Mangione
was presented in Federal court
on December 19, 2024 on four
charges, one of them death
penalty eligible, for the
killing of UnitedHealth CEO
Brian Thompson.
In the NYS
case, on December 2, 2025
Altoona PD officer Joseph
Dewiler explained separating
Mangione from his backpack,
later searched - then at the
end, Justice Carro ruled to
seal all exhibits, without
giving any opportunity to be
heard.
Late on December
2 Inner City Press emailed,
then on December 3 faxed and
hand-delivered, a letter
asking to be heard and for
unsealing, here.
After
handing in the letter and
getting it stamped at 10 am,
Inner City Press stayed in and
covered Justice Carro's
courtroom to 1 pm, then from
2:30 to past 5 pm. See above.
Then:
Justice Carro
said, "Mr. Lee? Come up to the
rail." I did. He said, I've
read your letter. I intend
tomorrow to decide what part
of what is being presented
came be made public to the
Press.
I asked:
Then we can react? He: not by
speaking up in court. I will
not be taking questions. I
have read your letter.
But there may
have to be another letter. You
can write again, he said.
Maybe notice and a right to be
heard should have been
provided before an order to
seal. But here we are. Watch
this site.
On unsealing bid,
more / extra on X for
Subscribers here
and Substack here
***
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
500 Pearl Street, NY NY 10007 USA
Mail: Box 130222, Chinatown Station,
NY NY 10013
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 2006-2026 Inner City
Press, Inc. To request reprint or other
permission, e-contact Editorial [at]
innercitypress.com
|
,
