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SDNY COURTHOUSE, Aug 30 – Defendant Ernest Horge back on February 27 said in open court that it is unfair he is in the same case as a man now set to be charged with capital murder, Sidney Scales.

 Then, Horge's court appointed lawyer Matthew D. Myers said he may soon make a motion for severance of the cased, but he has a trial on the other side of the country first.

  Months later on May 28 amid the COVID-19 pandemic, Horge and Myers and others appeared virtual before Judge Laura Taylor Swain. Inner City Press again covered it.

   Scales will not, in fact, face the death penalty. Horge said he needs the chance to communicate with him, to avoid misunderstandings. CJA lawyer Myers spokes vaguely about family member contacts and of his talks with the U.S. Attorney's Office about a pre-trial disposition. Horge spoke for himself, as before, and asked for release on medical grounds. It was not granted. The next telephone conference was set for July.

 On July 20 Inner City Press covered Judge Swain's proceeding in the case, on Scales. It emerged that Horge's son has written to the Judge, stating "My father was a good man, he always support the family, he provided food and clothes for me and my brother. I wanna to ask, How long do my father Ernest horge has to do time for press respond back, I'm really worry about him and I miss him so much."

   Judge Swain's chambers wrote back that the Judge "is not in a position to respond to your question."

 Now in late August Judge Swain has ordered, "ORDER as to Ernest Horge. The Court has requested that a pretrial conference take place take place via video-conference on the morning of September 10, 2020, at 9:00 a.m. No conference date, time, or modality can be confirmed before the end of the preceding week, so counsel are requested to keep their calendars open between the hours of 9 a.m. and 2 p.m. on September 10, 2020, until further notice. The Court has also requested that defense counsel be given an opportunity to speak with the Defendant by telephone for fifteen minutes before the proceeding begins; defense counsel should make sure to answer the telephone number that was previously provided to Chambers at that time. In advance of the conference, Chambers will email the parties with further information on how to access the conference (Signed by Judge Laura Taylor Swain on 8/27/20)." Watch this site.

 Back in February in an in-person proceeding in the gallery where Inner City Press was the only media were family members of both defendants, including a small child running around with a pacifer.

Previous Horge and Myers described non-functional computers to review discovery in the MCC, requiring him to print out nine inches of documents from a hard drive the US Attorney's Office provided him.

   U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York Judge Laura Taylor Swain, who has also received handwritten letters from Horge's family members and filed them in the docket after redacting children's names, patiently asked Horge about his medication. On February 27 she urged him to speak less.

   But Horge had more to say. He insisted that the gun was found in someone else's room, in someone else's apartment.

     He said the prosecutors, here represented by AUSA Frank Balsamello, were just "using 924(c) as a bargaining tool." He said everybody loves him, he has a great sense of humor. He rhymed Prosecutors lying and kids crying, and called the whole situation a "Star Spangled Banner blueprint for genocide."

  That said, the case will continue, with a conference on February 27 - the one Inner City Press attended. Now there's a delay for capital case review in DC. The case is US v. Horge, 19-cr-96 (Swain). 

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