| From Bank Fraud to Homocide
Charge to Rikers Island SDNY Sentencing
Submission Is Reeling In The Years
By Matthew
Russell Lee, Exclusive Patreon
SDNY COURTHOUSE,
July 30 – A man who pled
guilty to bank fraud was told
to use his pre-sentencing
freedom to show what he could
do with it.
Then he
got charged with a homocide in Brooklyn.
On July 30 U.S. District Court for the
Southern District of New York Judge Paul G.
Gardephe hearkened back to his own advice to
the defendent in March, seemingly of 2019,
before the March 26, 2019 murder charge.
But the
U.S. Attorney's Office's July 24, 2019
sentencing submission, in perhaps three
typos, tells a different story. The timeline
is all wrong, noted here by "sic" - "On
December 7, 2019 [sic], the defendant
entered a guilty plea.. The defendant's
adjustment to supervision, however, was
poor. On March 5, 2018 [sic] and March 18,
2018 [sic], the Court held bail hearings at
which the Government and Pretrial Services
detailed Mr. Reid's noncompliance... On
March 26, 2019, the defendant was arrested
and charged in New York State Court with
homocide."
But
Judge Gardephe described the alleged murder
as being days after the two March
conferences - so, in March 2019, not 2018.
And how can Michael Reid have entered a
guilty plea in December 2019, which hasn't
happened yet?
Judge
Gardephe said he did not consider the
homocide charge in rendering his sentence,
of 18 months for bank fraud. But he did
mention a video, not apparently in the
docket, of Reid with his co-defendant(s)
just after the conference the very year of
which is now disputed, or mis-stated in the
sentencing submission. We'll have more on
this. The case is USA v. Michael Reid,
18-cr-364 (PGG).
Ronny Ramirez
Deluna worked
a cocaine
distribution
business
disguised as
a livery cab
service in
lower and Midtown
Manhattan from
April 2016 to
August 2017. He
pleaded
guilty,
arguably
safety valve eligible,
before SDNY
Judge Ronnie
Abrams on July
30.
Judge
Abrams, as a
routine part
of the plea
allocution
with Inner
City Press the
only media
present, asked
if Ramirez Deluna
is a U.S.
citizen. His
lawyer B. Alan
Seidler
replied that
he claims
derivative
citizenship
and that it is
being
litigated.
Seidler had
written to Abrams
back on June 17,
putting off a
June 19 status
conference
because "the
parties are
involved in
plea
discussions."
Judge Abrams
endorsed
that, pushing
back the
conference to
July 16, then
apparently
to July 30 when
the discussions
bore or at last
publicly showed
fruit. It had
been some time
coming:
despite a May
2018 indictment,
Ramirez Deluna
was not apprehended and
applied for
bail before
Judge Abrams
on February 5,
2019.
Then Judge Abrams
asked, "Why
did it take so
long for Mr.
Ramirez Deluna to be
arrested?"
Assistant US
Attorney
McGinness said
that Ramirez
Deluna had
retained a
defense lawyer
at that time
who made an
appearance on the
docket "but
the DEA was
not able to
apprehend him.
He did not
surrender."
Then the US
Marshals took
over and
interviewed "
family member
or a relative
or a social
friend of
his." Then he
turned himself
in.
Before Judge
Abrams on
February 5,
his then
lawyer Mr.
Velez offered
as financially
responsible
people ready
to sign Stephanie
Delacruz who
works at
Montefiore Hospital.
"She is his girlfriend.
She makes $60,000," Mr.
Velez said.
AUSA McGinness
replied that
"he is not
only a risk of
flight, he has
been in
flight."
Judge Abrams
said, "I find
this baffling.
I haven't had
a situation before
where a
defense
attorney filed
a notice of
appearance and
yet his client
stayed where
he was instead of
fleeing,
didn't
surrender."
The Bronx is
large.... None
of this was
covered at the
time, nor now:
it is part of the
vast otherwise
unreported
part of the
SDNY's docket.
Judge
Abrams denied
bail, but put
it on a fast
track back
in February.
Now this
guilty plea,
with the
specter of a
safety value.
The sentencing
is set for
November 15.
Inner City
Press, working
on these
stories while
perched
over a Pacer
terminal for months,
intends to be
there. Watch
this site. The case is USA
v. Ramirez
Deluna,
18-cr-351
(RA).
O
***
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