| 34 Year Old
Charged With Luring Teens to
Have Sex & Sell Drugs
Projects Batson Challenge
by
Matthew Russell Lee, Patreon Book
Substack
SDNY
COURTHOUSE,
April 4 – The U.S. District
Court for the Southern
District of New York
prosecutors on July 10
announced the unsealing of an
Indictment charging SHYMELL
EPHRON, a/k/a “Shy,” with two
counts of coercion and
enticement of minors to engage
in unlawful sexual activity
and five drug-trafficking
counts, including two counts
of using a minor to distribute
narcotics and two counts of
distributing narcotics to a
minor."
Inner City
Press went to the presentment,
the only media there. Thread:
AUSA: The
17-year-old was forcibly
raped: the 15 year old was
given Ecstasy. Federal
Defender: We are asking for
release on bail. AUSA:
The defendant is 34 years old.
He invited another to come
over, texting "Just got two
b*tches." After the FBI found
drugs in his apartment, he was
already on location
monitoring.
Jane Doe 1's
mother (by phone) We have
endured trauma. Keep this
criminal off the street.
Federal Defender:
I have doubts about coercion.
They went to a police
precinct, then went back with
the defendant. He has an
apartment in Harlem, unlike
many of our
clients
FD: He is ROR on
the state cases. He didn't
flee. AUSA: He checks in
with Probation in Times
Square, which is where he
found the 2 victims.
Judge Sarah
Netburn: I cannot release you.
Detained.
On August 30, the
US Attorney's Office opposed
Ephron's request for a 60 day
extension of the motions
deadline, noting that on
August 6 it received
recordings of the defendant's
jail calls and immediately
produced them to defense
counsel and citing the public
interest in the prompt
resolution of criminal cases.
Jury selection
began on March 31, 2025 - and
took four days. On the fifth
day, Federal Defenders wrote
in that peremptory challenge
lists should be kept as a
sealed exhibit to allow a
Batson challenge to the 2d
Circuit, "should Mr. Ephron be
convicted."
Judge Garnett
docketed: "It is the Court's
standard practice to mark
peremptory strike forms as
court exhibits and file them
under seal at the close of
trial; that standard practice
will be followed in this case."
Openings are now
set for April 7.
The case is USA
v. Ephron, 1:24-cr-418
(Garnett)
***
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