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By Matthew Russell Lee, Patreon

SDNY COURTHOUSE, Feb 2 – Janbaz Khan took the express 2/3 subway from Manhattan's Penn Station to Times Square on January 21, 2016 - and then he got handcuffed and arrested. He was charged with Sexual Abuse in the Third Degree.

 One year later Khan was acquitted after a two bench trial before NYS Judge Melissa Crane. Then he sued the City and arresting officer Timothy Trotter.

  Now on September 30, 2019 in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York courtroom of Judge John G. Koeltl with only Inner City Press in the gallery Khan's lawyer Andrew L. Hoffman pressed his case.

  Hoffman insisted that Khan never pressed himself on the complainant, whom he's identified as "T.G. a 32-year told Long Island native... heroin abuser since the age of 15."

 The City's lawyer Daron R. Ravenborg said, at the time of his answer, that he did not have the transcript of Officer Trotter's criminal trial testimony, and therefore denied paragraphs 36-52 of the complaint.

  It appeared that this case about a ride in a crowded subway in January 2016 might go to trial anytime after February 28, 2020, on 48 hours notice...

 But no. Amid COVID, Judge Koeltl on February 2, 2021 held another conference. He questioned whether the parties should hold their final offers in their back pockets, then said as he often does that if he didn't work on this case, he'd work on another.

  Judge Koeltl has given the parties until February 26 to make motions for summary judgment. The case is Khan v. City of New York et al.,  19-cv-104 (Koeltl)