After NYCHA
Bribery Take Down 2d Trial of
Hector Colon Has Jury Discord
& Bias per Note
by
Matthew Russell Lee, Patreon Book
Substack
SDNY
COURTHOUSE,
Nov 21 – For days Inner City
Press had heard from its
sources there would be a
"takedown" on February 6, each
SDNY Magistrate Judge would
handle seven to 10 defendants.
Arrests happen at
6 am. So at 5:55 am Inner City
Press tweeted it, first to X
subscribers with the spoiler
alert: the expectation was
that each of the current or
former NYCHA employees would
be released on bond the same
day.
And then hours
later at 9:39 am the
prosecutors announced it.
Media rushed around reporting
it. Inner City Press had
it first, and after discretely
waiting, published it first.
Then this thread of
presentments, here
On September 16,
NYCHA defendant Charles Starks
moved to dismiss, noting that
the indictment provided
"almost no detail on... the
timing" - and citing the
Supreme Court's Snyder v. US
decision.
On November 12,
NYCHA defendant Hector Colon
was moving toward trial to
start on November 18. Inner
City Press went to the final
pre-trial conference, where
discussion ranged from a
Punjabi interpreter to voir
dire.
On November 18
Inner City Pres was there,
from the thread:
US v Hector
Colon. Contractor witness with
immunity agreement tells jury
he bribed 20 to 25 NYCHA
employees.
AUSA: Why did you
pay? Witness ( through Punjabi
interpreter) They demanded it
or they wouldn't sign off on
our work, the SOS, so we could
get paid.
On November
21, after the jury sent out a
note including that "we are
having a lot of discord, some
are more driven by bias +
don't believe some items." The
US Attorney's Office wanted to
ask if anyone on the jury is
refusing to deliberate based
on the Court's instructions;
the defense does not want to
ask, at least not yet.
Inner City Press
will stay on these cases.
Watch this site.
This case is USA
v. Colon, 1:24-cr-367 (Liman)
Watch this
site - and these feeds: X
and X
for subscribers.
And Substack here
***
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