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In Trial of Accused Slasher of Witness Neck  Guilty on Retaliation Now 3 Years In Prison

By Matthew Russell Lee, Patreon
BBC - Guardian UK - Honduras - The Source

SDNY COURTHOUSE, July 27 – Christian Nieves was  on trial on witness tampering charges. Inner City Press covered it. The complaint said that Nieves and his co-defendant Elias Polanco conspired to slash an individual across the neck in retaliation for his testimony in a federal criminal trial.

  Inner City Press which exclusively covered the case and trial first reported: while Nieves was found guilty on witness retaliation, he and Polanco were both found not guilty on conspiracy to commit witness retaliation. Verdict sheet here.

  Now on July 27, 2021: "CHRISTIAN NIEVES, a/k/a “Eric Rosario,” a/k/a “White Boy,” was sentenced today to three years in prison in connection with his retaliation against a witness who had testified at a previous federal murder trial by slashing the witness across the neck with a blade."

  Back on August 11, 2020 U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York Judge Jed S. Rakoff held a proceeding. Inner City Press covered it, and the pre-trial conferences since.

 On April 15 in the large courtroom on the 26th floor of 500 Pearl Street, Judge Rakoff took counsel into the side room for a sidebar. Then Federal Defenders cross examined a witness about his interviews in March 2021 with prosecutors and an NYPD detective, about selling "bananas" -- percocet -- bought outside pharmacies, and deleting 20 out of 23 text messages.

On April 16 the witness was still being cross-examined, about what he told registered nurse Benny Matthews in Montefiore Hospital on February 5, 2019. Also there in the hospital, and now in the courtroom, was Detective Paul Jeselson.

Can he be both a fact and expert witness?

  Judge Rakoff said the trial is fun for this kind of question, then joked he must be sick to find this fun. No, it's interesting: the argument ranged from hypotheticals about John Gotti punching a neighbor to burst pipes in Yonkers to the girlfriend as car mechanic line in My Cousin Vinny.

On April 19 Jeselson took the stand, and on direct described and interpreted the gang's hand signs. As cross examination began he was asked of the difference between cooperators and Confidential Informants, and if the latter were committing crimes in partnership with the government.

Judge Rakoff questioned the relevance, to the testimony give.

On April 20, before the charging conference, Judge Rakoff ruled that only Charges 1 and 4 remain and will no longer be numbered in the jury instruction. The closing arguments are being prepared, as Judge Rakoff prepares to give a speech to youth at the request of one of his past Courtroom Deputies. That's how those Chambers work.

  The trial continues toward its conclusion, with at least three others starting this week and this one already in 40 Foley.

This case is US v. Nieves, 19-cr-354 (Rakoff)

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