| SDNY Judge Koeltl Orders
White Noise To Evade Press Coverage Of
Cooperator Lozano
By Matthew
Russell Lee, Exclusive, Patreon
SDNY COURTHOUSE,
Sept 26 – There was an
evidentiary hearing with a
government cooperator on the
witness stand but which got
sealed soon after Inner City
Press to cover it walked into
the
U.S. District
Court for the
Southern
District of
New York
courtroom of
District Judge
John G. Koeltl
on September
26.
On the witness
stand was
Jimmy Lozano,
who previously
pled guilty to
Hobbs Act
armed robbery
in the South
Bronx in 2003
and now, after
an arrest in
Vermont for
Oxycodone,
faces
deportation.
Apparently to
avoid
deportation
Lozano has
become a
cooperator.
But Judge
Koeltl who
previous
ordered Inner
City Press to
leave his
courtroom
during another
cooperators
initial
presentment
this time
accomplished
the same thing
by converting
the proceeding
into a
whispered
sidebar and
turning up the
white noise so
Inner City
Press couldn't
hear.
When the long
whispering was
over, Lozano
with his
attorney
Stephanie
Carvlin walked
past and out.
Lozano has on
a black Polo
shirt and a
Cleveland
Indians
basement cap,
soon to be
covered over
with a
motorcycle
helmet.
On PACER Inner
City Press
found most or
some of the
case but found
for example
that Exhibit
16 to the most
recently
submission
says "FILED
UNDER SEAL."
We'll have
more on this.
For now, more
on Patreon
here.
Back on August 7
a criminal presentation with
Arabic interpreter was set for
2:45 pm before Judge Koeltl
Inner City Press, alerted by
its sources, went into the
courtroom. Soon Assistant US
Attorney Robert B. Sobelman
was asking Inner City Press
questions.
At 3:09 pm
Judge Koeltl's acting clerk
called the case as "United
States versus John Doe." The
defendant's lawyer, who told
the US Marshals not to bring
his client out of the holding
cell, asked Judge Koetlt for a
sidebar. Judge Koeltl, unlike
Circuit Judge Richard J.
Sullivan on July 26, granted
the sidebar. The white noise
was turned on.
After a
more than eight minute
animated sidebar discussion,
with the two lawyers, two
clerks, the acting deputy and
a court reporter, Judge
Koeltl took the bench and
asked Inner City Press to
leave. He said there was a
compelling need for secrecy,
without explaining what it
was, and said that the
government would provide some
update about this need for
secrecy -- in sixty days.
The
deputy came and indicted it
was time to leave. While doing
so, this reporter asked Judge
Koeltl, What's the case
number?
After a
pause, Judge Koeltl said
replied with a number.
But down
at the PACER terminal in SDNY
Press Room 480, where Inner
City Press earlier on August 7
was belatedly assigned a desk,
the response to this quiery
was, Cannot find [that] case."
The
defendant, it was said before
Inner City Press was ordered
out, was arrested the night
before. His defense lawyer
joked with the deputy about
Mad magazine's series, "Spy
versus Spy." In the gallery
were a half dozen camouflage
dressed agents whom Judge
Koeltl allowed to stay, along
with a representative of
pre-trial services. Is the
defendant going to be released
on bond? Is he - or she - a
cooperator? What is the basis
for this unannounced total
sealing of the courtroom for a
criminal presentment? Inner
City Press will have more on
this.
Inner
City Press
will have more
on this - see
also @InnerCityPress
and the new @SDNYLIVE.
***
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