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By Matthew Russell Lee, Patreon

SDNY COURTHOUSE, June 17 – A defendant who was paid $10,000 to move to Philadelphia by the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York has still not moved due to mother issues, it emerged on June 17 in a proceeding before SDNY Judge Richard M. Berman with Inner City Press the only media present.

  Jose Coste was assaulted by co-defendants in his case so the US Attorney's Office gave him $6,600 to relocate. He did, to Valentine Avenue also in The Bronx. But then when he drove his mother back to where he had been living she too was threatened. The US Attorney's Office on June 17 said it issued a money order for $10,100 to a real estate broker to move the mother, since it couldn't twice pay the son, to Philadelphia.

  But now no one has moved. Judge Berman inquired into it on June 17, asking about separately issues and what Coste's St. Mark's therapist had said. His Federal Defender lawyer objected but Judge Berman was not convinced.

  Sometimes lawyers get in the way, he said. Do you know the answers to my questions? She did not.

  It emerged that the U.S. Attorney's office thinks that the money order they issued in the name of a real estate broker was in fact cashed by Coste after he changed the name to himself. Since this would seem to be a Federal crime - except by a cooperating witness - the Federal Defenders attempt to put off questions was understandable.

 But the proceeding proceeded with questions about mommy issues and if Coste will, in fact, move to Philadelphia. Suddenly there was a concern about saying the address in open court; the Probation officer said she had been texted the address but had not yet verified it.

  Inner City Press, despite being ham handedly excluded entirely from a sentencing proceeding across Pearl Street by Judge Lorna G. Schofield later in the day is refraining from publishing much that was said, about a particular gang with a particular presence on a particular block in The Bronx which the government paid $6,600 in tax payer dollars to relocate the defendant to. Watch this site.

   Before Judge Berman back in May, Christian Toro who has a teacher at charter high school in Harlem assembled a bomb and asked a student to call in a bomb threat received a 70 month prison sentence on May 22 from Judge Berman. The sentencing guidelines, as agreed to in Christian Toro's plea agreement with the office of U.S. Attorney Geoffrey S. Berman, were 37 to 46 months.

   After summarizing the Federal Defenders' arguments for a time-served sentence, Berman asked Christian Toro directly why he had assembled a bomb, including improved napalm and ball bearings. After some whispering, Christian Toro said he and his brother Tyler Toro, still to be sentenced, had been exposed to fireworks from an early age.

  This did not work. Judge Berman said, We cannot just have unexplained bombs in middle class apartments in The Bronx. He said he had never before sentenced above the guidelines in a plea agreement, but would do so in this case.

   Perhaps channeling the movie Network, Judge Berman said It is time we wake up to unacceptable behavior. He chided Christian Toro's family and friends for not stopping him. Then he imposed a 70 month sentence.

  Tyler Toro's sentencing submission includes a certificate from Iron Chef, ironic perhaps given the references to the ball bearings in the Bronx apartment. Inner City Press will continue to cover this case, and the context.

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