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EDNY Judge Shields Says Pagartanis in MDC Must Exhaust Remedies While Judge Castel Urges Practical Solution

By Matthew Russell Lee, Patreon
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EDNY, April 3 – When Magistrate Judge Anne Y. Shields of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York heard the request of Steven Pagartanis, sentenced to 170 months in prison for multi-million dollar securities fraud scheme targeting mostly elderly investors, to be freed due to Coronavirus in the MDC in Brooklyn, it did not take long.
 
   Pagartanis' lawyer Kevin Keating acknowledged that his client had not exhausted his administrative remedies; he did not try to make the arguments against the MDC required for freedom under for example SDNY Judge Paul A. Engelmayer's decision in USA v. Credidio. Judge
Shields said, I am denying relief.

  It is a pattern, on both sides of the East River.

Kushtrim Demaj is serving one year and one day after a cocaine conviction. But on April 2 amid the Coronavirus pandemic his lawyer Jeff Cabrowe argued for his early release before U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York Judge Andrew L. Carter.

  Things did not go well.

  Judge Carter quickly asserted the need to exhaust administrative remedies under the First Step Act, an issue confronted by many SDNY judges, see below. Chabrowe asked if he should apply directly to the MDC Warden; Judge Carter replied, I'm not going to tell you how to do your job.

 And with that it was over, in a mere ten minutes. Inner City Press was the only media covering it, as also the case below. This one is US v. Demaj, 16-cr-289 (Carter).

  James Woodson is a 56-year old inmate in the Metropolitan Correctional Center who has been seeking compassionate release under the First Step Act. But the Bureau of Prisons has yet to rule in any way on his requests. Does he have to wait? 

 On April 1 Woodon's Federal Defender Sarah Baumgartel asked U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York Judge P. Kevin Castel to "immediately grant Mr. Woodson's motion to reduce his sentence, and re-sentence him to time served," with eight months of home confinement during a three year term of supervised release.

   Assistant US Attorney Louis Pellegrino countered with a decision by SDNY Judge Denise Cote in US v. Monzon, 99-cr-157, that the claimed statutory exhaustion requirement must be "strictly enforced."

    Judge Castel reserved judgment, indicating he would be preparing a legal ruling but urging AUSA Pellegrino to find a practical solution, in the form of a decision by the Bureau of Prisons. Inner City Press will continue to follow this case. It is US v. Woodson, 18-cr-845 (Castel).

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