| In SDNY Child Prostitution
Defense of Claudius English Rests As NYPD
Destroyed Bullets After Moving Seagram Gin
By Matthew
Russell Lee, Exclusive
SDNY COURTHOUSE,
June 7 – A young woman who was
pimped out and forced to quit
high school testified on June
5 in a disturbing prostitution
prosecution case proceeding
before U.S.
District Court
for the
Southern
District of
New York Judge
Paul G.
Gardephe.
By the
afternoon of
June 7 the two
lawyers for
defendant
Claudius
English rested
their case,
with a final volley
of questions
for a police
officer from the
Bronx' 46th
Precinct about
whether
a bottle of Seagram's
gin taken from English's
apartment in 1995
Davidson
Avenue had
been open or
closed.
The deeper problem, it
has
emerged, is
that the New York
Police
Department
destroyed
evidence they
took from
English's
apartment: three
bullets and a
holster. The
government will
submitted a
letter to
Judge Gardephe
by Saturday, June
8 at noon on
how the issue
should
be addressed
in the jury
charge.
On
Monday, June 10 come
the summations
and said jury
charge. Judge
Gardephe's
courtroom
Deputy told
the juror
that on
Monday, "Lunch
is on us,"
after discussing
the admittedly
overpriced
in-house Sorriso's
Court
House Cafe ("Established
2019").
Will the
NYPD's grossly
negligent
destruction of
evidence in
2018 from a
2013 arrest
allow impunity for
these charges
of child sex
trafficking?
Earlier
in Judge
Gardephe
courtroom
with an
otherwise
empty gallery,
a witness whom
Inner City
Press will not
name and whose
information
will be sealed
in the
transcript
testified to
being forced
into oral sex
by a pimp,
whom she
called Jay,
who fired a
gun from his
roof and
threatened her
Irvington, New
Jersey
parents.
On June 6 the
trial
continued,
with a Special
Agent Nelson
testifying about
IP addresses
from which
Backpage.com
advertisements
were taken
out. The case is USA
v. Claudius
English
a/k/a Jay
Barnes a/k/a
Brent
English,
18-cr-492 (PGG).
The
conduct at
issue - the
shooting
of a gun from
the roof,
the forced
sex, the buying
of advertisements
and re-sale of
Shitsu
dog - took
place in an
apartment building
on
Davidson
Avenue in The
Bronx. The
payments were
made through
Comerica
Bank.
The witness,
called
Victim-1 in
the initially
sealed
Complaint,
for a time
took the NYC
subway and the
PATH train to
her high
school in New
Jersey, then
stopped. She
was forced to
have sex with
men, and was
attacked for
dating boys
her own age.
She lost her
Shitsu dog.
The defense,
doing its job,
ended June 5
questioning
the quality of
disclosure, no
3500 material
about the
witnesses
interviews
with
prosecutors in
The Bronx.
Judge Gardephe
told the US
Attorney's
Office to look
into it.
Later on June
5 Assistant US
Attorneys
Michael Krouse
and Ni Qian
wrote to Judge
Gardephe that
they had
"spoke[n] by
phone to the
two relevant
former Bronx
ADAs, Lauren
Di Chiara and
Meagan Powers.
Both stated
they met with
Sarah
W. before she
testified in
the grand
jury, but that
they do not
believe they
took notes."
Perhaps they
should have -
in the state
case against
him, Claudius
English
got part of
the search
warrants
against him quashed, see NYS decision here.
Perhaps
it emboldened
him to go to
trial on the Federal
charges rather
that plea
bargain. As the
trial nears
its end, the
wisdom of that
decision will soon
be seen. Watch
this site.
***
Your
support means a lot. As little as $5 a month
helps keep us going and grants you access to
exclusive bonus material on our Patreon
page. Click
here to become a patron.
Feedback:
Editorial [at] innercitypress.com
Box 20047, Dag Hammarskjold
Station NY NY 10017
Reporter's mobile (and weekends):
718-716-3540
Other, earlier Inner City Press are
listed here,
and some are available in the ProQuest
service, and now on Lexis-Nexis.
Copyright 2006-2019 Inner City
Press, Inc. To request reprint or other
permission, e-contact Editorial [at]
innercitypress.com for
|
,
