SDNY COURTHOUSE,
Sept 15 -- After scandals from
inmates left without soap
during the COVID pandemic to
the death of Jeffrey Epstein,
on August 26 it was reported
that the Department of Justice
would close the Metropolitan
Correctional Center.
But on
September 15 Inner City Press
reported that the Bureau of
Prisons will NOT close the
MCC, but rather keep it open
for on-trial defendants like
Joshua Schulte, whose
late-announced proceeding
Inner City Press live tweeted,
here.
Podcast here.
Vlog here.
Also to remain
are detained witnesses. The
issue arose when the potential
for trial disruption or delay
arose, for the second day in a
row as reported by Inner City
Press.
The MDC
where they plan to move some
inmates has problems of its
own, including as Inner City
Press has reported the recent
death of a former DEA agent on
the day he was convicted of
child porn, here.
We'll have more on this.
Back in
March 2020, just before the
COVID lock downs, during the
guilty plea of Christian
Navedo on March 3 to lesser
included offenses involving
gun possession and use in
connection with a conspiracy
to distribute heroin and
fentanyl, it emerged that he
and other in the Metropolitan
Correctional Center have had
not visitors, or hot food or
showers, for five days. Inner
City Press reported it, here,
then continued its inquiries.
On the
evening of March 4, on Park
Row behind the MCC, Inner City
Press witnessed and filed a
large group with identical
rolling bags going into the
MCC. Video
here. It appears that
the Bureau of Prison has
brought in new staff.
On March 4,
U.S. District Court for the
Southern District of New York
Magistrate Judge Kevin N. Fox
asked Navedo if these
conditions impacted his
ability to understand the
proceedings and plead guilty
with a clear mind.
"You mean, does
it impact me?" Navedo asked.
His lawyer
whispered to him, and he
confirmed that his competence
to plea guilty was not
impacted.
On March 4
a defendant charged with
violations of supervised
release argued through counsel
to Judge Fox that he should
not be detained in the MCC as
he would not received the 100
mg of methadone he is on.
Inner City Press will have
more on this.
The lack of
visitors in the MCC arose on
March 2 when Larry Ray
appeared before Judge Fox; his
Federal Defender said she had
been unable to show him the
government's video
evidence.
Navedo's lawyer
put into the record the MCC
conditions, likening them to
the conditions in the MDC in
Brooklyn which have given rise
in many cases to reduced
sentencing. Here, Navedo has
agreed to not appeal or
otherwise collaterally attack
any sentence below 327 months.
The case is US v. Navedo,
19-cr-259 (Fox /
Berman).
***
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