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by Matthew Russell Lee, Patreon Book Substack

SDNY COURTHOUSE, Nov 13 – Norman Gray was on trial for allegedly defrauding Andrea Pizziconi out of $500,000. On May 22, she testified before U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York Judge Paul A. Engelmayer. Inner City Press was there.  

 The Assistant US Attorney had Pizziconi read her text messages to Gray on the fateful days, in the fall of 2020.

She was asking for her money back, for a condo she had moved her belongings into. The seller asked the super to throw her out, triggering memories from her childhood, all in the long text messages. 

 Gray, who was awarded a position at a Connecticut institution of higher learning known for polling, put her off, asking for more time, including to visit with her grandchildren. She obliged him. But the indictment followed.

   Later, Gray's lawyer Martin Bell, previously an SDNY prosecutor, conducted an open-ended cross examination.

On May 28, Bell wrote to Judge Engelmayer asking to get admitted into evidence a redacted email to Gray, with redactions including "it just doesn't smell right."

Gray was found guilty and was ordered to surrender pre-sentecing on June 3, unlike Judge Furman's action in US v. Chavez - but NOT to MDC Brooklyn, so consonant with that decision: "ORDER as to Norman Gray: IT IS HEREBY ORDERED that the defendant is directed to surrender to the custody of the United States Marshals at 500 Pearl Street by 2 p.m. on Monday, June 3, 2024. The Court instructs the Bureau of Prisons ("BOP") to house the defendant, pending his sentencing on September 12, 2024, at a facility other than the Metropolitan Detention Center, and directs the United States Attorney's Office to work with the BOP to arrange for such housing. (Signed by Judge Paul A. Engelmayer on 5/29/2024)."

On May 31, Gray's lawyer submitted a new proposed bail package, increased by $310,000 and secured by 695 Sherman Avenue, Hamden CT and 241 Magee Drive, also in Hamden, and limited smartphone use.

But on June 3, this: "ORDER as to Norman Gray. Consistent with its ruling from the bench this morning, the Court hereby orders that, at 11 am today, defendant Norman Gray be taken into custody in Courtroom 1305 of the Thurgood Marshall Courthouse and brought to the United States Marshals at 500 Pearl Street. Prior to 11am, Mr. Gray is to remain in the courtroom under the supervision of the Government's case agents. SO ORDERED (Signed by Judge Paul A. Engelmayer on 6/3/24)."

In late July, "ORDER as to Norman Gray. The Probation Department has notified the Court by email that, as a result of consequential information first provided to Probation by the Government on Friday evening, July 19, 2024, which information the Probation Department represents has the capacity to substantially affect its calculation of the Sentencing Guidelines, the Probation Department needs additional time to prepare its draft report. It proposes that the draft PSR be filed on August 16, 2024, and that, following objections and revisions to the report, the final PSR issue on September 13, 2024. Such would require adjourning the current sentencing date, which is September 12, 2024. The Probation Department reports that the Government opposes this amended schedule, although, if in fact new consequential information was first provided to the Probation Department this past Friday evening, it is difficult for the Court to see how an adjournment of the present schedule, including the sentencing date, would be avoidable. The Court directs Government and defense counsel to confer promptly, and to set forth their views."

They wrote in on July 26, that sentencing should be in November, "in light of the possibility that factual disputes over certain uncharged conduct may require a Fatico hearing." So is the new information about "uncharged conduct"? PSRs are sealed - but sentencing is still called open.

On August 6, docketed was a pro se letter from Gray asking Judge Engelmayer "to allow me to go home to support my wife and family through the next several months...My previous counsel asked to be removed because of an ethical dilemma having to do with Defense Exhibit U."

On August 20, the US Attorney's Office wrote in opposing Gray's release bid as "an unauthorized hybrid representation submission" in which "even more astonishingly, the defendant has offered to once again expose his daughter to jeopardy 'under oath to the Court.'"

On October 22 the US Attorney's Office wrote in for a Fatico meeting on November 18, "including a second victim who currently resided in Spain."

On November 13 Gray's counsel wrote in to cancel the Fatico hearing, saying "Mr. Gray no longer seek to contest any of the information in the Presentence Report for the purposes of sentencing."

More on Substack here.

  The case is US v. Gray, 21-cr-713 (Engelmayer)

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