| Unvaccinated
Burgos Found Guilty By Jury and Remanded
In SDNY Trial, Call In Line Added
By Matthew
Russell Lee, Patreon
BBC
- Guardian
UK - Honduras
- ESPN
SDNY COURTHOUSE,
August 25 – Jonathan Burgos
began a jury trial on August
23, and Inner City Press was
there. And, after two reports,
a call-in line was put in the
docket on Day 3, when the jury
returned two verdicts of
guilty and Burgos was
remanded, see below.
Back on August 16, U.S.
District Court for the
Southern District of New York
Judge Valerie E. Caproni held
a final pre-trial conference.
Judge Caproni
called whether the term
"overdose" could be used a
close question, given that the
witness would not be present
to testify. She said the trial
should finish before that
Friday of that week, but might
go into Friday if not.
She asked Burgos
if he is vaccinated - No - and
either way, he had to raise
his mask over his nose. She
strongly urged him to get
vaccinated. (Elsewhere on
August 16 in SDNY, in Part 1
to be exact, Judge Jed S.
Rakoff conditioned
the pre-trial release of a
defendant on getting
vaccinated).
On August 23,
Burgos and his lawyer were
facing the judge's bench,
while three prosecutors and a
para-legal tech faced the
jury. In the witness box
Sergeant Burckhard said yes,
he's seen these baggies and
the crack, and the steel razor
blades.
The US Attorney's
Office predicts that the
defense will say NYPD tries
unsuccessfully to conduct
undercover drug purchases
directly from the defendant.
While Inner City
Press covered the direct and
cross-examination (there was
no re-direct) in person, it
wrote: "it was unclear if
there was a call-in line and
if not, why not. It would help
- if necessary to cite,
particularly with an
unvaccinated defendant."
On August 24 - it
seemed there was no call in
line -- the undercover officer
who filmed drug buys in 1735
Lafayette Avenue in The Bronx
was on the stand. He described
six bags (of cocaine) for
$100, and trying to cut out
the middle man. A board of
photos was growing in front of
the jury. There was no cross
examination.
On August 25, the
jury began to deliberate, and
Inner City Press went up in
the gallery, along with two
women. The jury asked for
photos of the February 6, 2020
arrests (the bedroom photos
shown on August 23), then said
they wanted to stay to 6 pm to
deliberate. In between, Judge
Caproni's law clerk came to
say a call-in line had been
added to the docket - it's
true - and Judge Caproni said,
You see, sometimes we read
you.
Less than
an hour later, the jury
returned with two guilty
verdicts. The US asked for
remand, which the defense
attorney opposed. Judge
Caproni said that while she
was sympathetic, the statute
binds her hands. She ordered
remand to the Marshals, then
went to speak to the jury.
Watch this site.
This case is US
v. Burgos et al., 20-cr-182
(Caproni)
***
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
SDNY Press Room 480, front cubicle
500 Pearl Street, NY NY 10007 USA
Mail: 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 2006-2021 Inner City
Press, Inc. To request reprint or other
permission, e-contact Editorial [at]
innercitypress.com
|
,
