| Trial For
Armed Robbery of Soho Chanel Store Has
Cahill Raising ID Doubt Amid Feedback Loop
By Matthew
Russell Lee, Patreon
BBC
- Guardian
UK - Honduras
- ESPN
SDNY COURT
Exclusive, March 23 –
Eric Spencer is charged with a
Hobbs Act robbery of a Channel
store in Soho in Manhattan in
2021, of $200,000 in
handbags.
On May 18, 2021 U.S. District
Court for the Southern
District of New York Judge
Gregory H. Woods held a
proceeding. Inner City Press
covered it.
Judge Woods
asked about the evidence in
the case.
The Assistant US
Attorney cited surveillance
video, Facebook posting
obtained with no warrant
needed, cell phone location
data sought with a warrant,
and body cam footage that, it
seems, will have to be
redacted.
Judge Woods
said that at the next
conference, he will set a
trial date. And he did.
Jump cut to March
22, 2022. A week after Judge
Wood signed a use of Force
Order authorizing the US
Marshals to use reasonable
necessary force to remove
Spencer from the Metropolitan
Detention Center to come to
court, jury selection began -
not without incident.
Spencer
told his appointed lawyer,
Anirudh Bansal from the Cahill
Gordon law firm, that
prospective Juror Number 11
was a friend of a relative of
his.
Bansal, noting later
that he as an officer of the
court he had and has a duty of
candor, passed the information
on and the juror was stricken.
Spencer
was outraged that his lawyer
had turned what he told him in
confidential over to the
government. Judge Woods
convened a hearing away from
the Jury Selection room, on
the 26th Floor of 500 Pearl
Street. Inner City Press was
there.
Judge
Woods asked if the Assistant
US Attorneys should leave -
they did - but to his credit
(and following the law) did
not ask the Press to leave.
There ensued a colloquy
between Judge Woods and
Spencer, who spoke extremely
quickly, about whether he was
asking for a new lawyer or
just to get this issue
addressed. It seemed it was
the latter.
Judge
Woods wrote it off to Bansal's
lack of time to tell Spencer
he would pass the information
on, before he passed it on.
But then it seemed there was
more. Bansal, also to his
credit, after some white noise
said that Spencer might not
communicate with him during
the trial.
After more
questions from Judge Woods, it
was determined that Spencer
will answer Bansal's
questions. But how will Bansal
know what to ask? [There will
be a transcript of the March
22 proceeding, word by fast
word.]
The parties
returned to the jury selection
room, as did Inner City Press.
Down there, with more chairs
as COVID social distance
recedes, prospective Juror 25
then 26 were called forward to
white noise, the latter with a
Yes answer only to question
67...
In opening
argument on March 23 another
Cahill lawyer, not Bansal, was
telling the jury that the only
photo of Spencer that day was
in Brooklyn when a loud audio
feedback loop began. Court
staff valiantly worked to fix
it; a juror in a UNICEF
sweatshirt raised his hand and
asked to take a break. The
gallery was more full than
usual, seemingly with people
from Cahill Gordon. Inner City
Press aims to continue to
follow the trial.
The case is USA
v. Spencer, 21-cr-193 (Woods)
***
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