| Honduras
Corrupt Cop & Lawyer Avila Get 144
Months On Eve of Tony Hernandez Sentencing
By Matthew
Russell Lee,
Patreon Song Filing
BBC
- Guardian
UK - Honduras
- ESPN
SDNY COURTHOUSE,
March 29 – Honduras President
Juan Orlando Hernandez took a
briefcase of cash and said he
would stuff drugs up the noses
of the gringos, a jury was
told on March 16, 2020.
Inner City Press live tweeted
it, morning here
and then the afternoon, about
the video(s), here
and below. Geovanny
Fuentes was found guilty, and
his lawyer told Inner City
Press he thinks JOH will be or
has already been indicted.
Now on
March 29, the day before JOH's
brother Tony's sentencing,
Honduras police official and
lawyer Juan
Manuel Avila
Meza came up
for sentencing
under another
docket number,
before another
SDNY judge:
Judge Lorna G.
Schofield. He
got 144
months. Inner
City Press
live tweeted
it here:
Juan Manuel Avila
Meza's lawyer: OK, he showed
up at a meeting. But he
surrendered voluntarily at the
US Embassy. [Sentencing
submission says he joined Los
Cachiros in 2004, argues for
guideline sentence of 210 to
262 months and $42,000
forfeiture]
Defense: Mr.
Avila was never posted to
cities through which drugs
were moving. He has confessed
guilty, but there is duress -
not a defense, but relevant.
He is trying to do what he
can: he went to the DEA and
said, I am here.
Defense
lawyer: Mr. Avila, he lived in
a poor country, he wanted to
make some money. He had a
little law office. Now he got
COVID. He's over it but he
still has difficulties
breathing. He's made
"cop-outs" (?) for medical
treatment.
[Inner City
Press: here's the beginning of
Avila's sworn statement on
assets - full copy now on
Patreon here]
US says
Avila in February 2014 "helped
set up a meeting between
Lionel [Rivera] and Juan
Antonio Hernandez... who
helped import almost 200,000
kilos of cocaine in the US."
Defense: He
is in good standing with the
bar in Honduras. Now Juan
Manuel Avila Meza speaks for
himself: ..."mi pobre pais,
Honduras... mi conduct ha
efectado a muchos. Pero hay
que considerar COVID." [my
poor country, Honduras ... my
behavior has affected many.
But you have to consider
COVID]
Avila: You
have to consider the
corruption of Honduras'
political leaders, who have
fallen into the clutches of
international drug
traffickers, with terrible
consequences for the people of
the country... I joined the
police to try to help, I began
a lawyer
Avila: I was
effected by drug trafficking
within the highest levels of
Honduras' government. Your
Honor, even the brother of the
president of the country was
sentenced by this court
[error: that's tomorrow].. he
was found guilty
Avila: It's
known that Los Cachiros has
made high Honduran government
officials tremble, from the
MCC and MDC jails in New
York... Show me misericordia
Judge: You
pled guilty to this
conspiracy, drugs and engaged
in violation. It has wrecked
havoc with Honduran society.
Judge: You
facilitated the conspiracy. I
understand that Honduras is a
lawless society. The US is
not. I will sentence you and
provide deterrence. I am
considering that you
surrendered voluntarily, and
that you got COVID in prison.
Judge
Lorna G. Schofield: I find 210
months, recommended, to be
excessive. But your lawyer
wants 60 months, which is too
law. There's Mr. Lobo, 288
months. Another officer got
168 months.... I have
determined for you a sentence
of 144 months.
Judge:
Let's have him in a facility
not with other members of Los
Cachiros, that would help his
statement of mind.
This case is USA
v. Lobo, et
al., 15-cr-174
(Schofield)
On March 26, Tony
Hernandez has countered with a
request for the minimum of 40
years, with a submission
citing brothers but NOT Juan
Orlando Hernandez. The word
Orlando does not appear in the
filing, on Patreon here
A question still:
Does the right to access to
Federal court proceedings
extend to listen-only
telephone lines, in the time
of COVID and beyond? Should
it?
The
question has been further
raised in the ongoing Honduras
narco-trafficking case US v.
Geovanny Fuentes, which Inner
City Press has been covering
in-person in the U.S. District
Court for the Southern
District of New York, where it
is "in-house press."
On
the morning of March 13, Inner
City Press filed a challenge
to the cut-off of audio access
to the US v. Fuentes trial,
citing the First Amendment,
COVID and real-world politics,
see here
and below.
Late on
the evening of March 14, the
US Attorney's Office filed a
three page letter into the
docket, specifically arguing
the the call-in line be
eliminated for two entire
Witnesses and everything they
say. US Attorney's Office's
letter, now uploaded on Inner
City Press' DocumentCloud, here.
Inner City
Press has immediately
responded in opposition, here,
stating among other things
that "the US Attorney's Office
seeks to specifically ban
public access to two of their
Witnesses, while saying that a
transcript would be available
at some unspecified date
afterwards. Given that the
Office has yet to unseal
improperly redacted portions
of their filings, there is
little reason to have
confidence in the speed of
transcription, or that such
transcripts would not be too
expensive for the public or
media.
Inner City Press
after its first filing waited
nine hours, including this song,
here, to report about
it. Full first letter on Inner
City Press' DocumentCloud, here.
Inner City
Press itself obeys all
existing rules and is grateful
for the additional access as
in-house media (particularly
since it is banned
from covering the UN, which
now Constitutional rights such
as the First Amendment exist).
But others
have rights too - including
journalists and regular
citizens of Honduras. If the
SDNY prosecutors are going to
exercises essentially
universal jurisdiction for any
wire transfer that passes
through lower Manhattan, how
ever briefly, they should not
oppose access to their trials
by those impacted, for better
and worse.
Judge Castel is a
good judge, in Inner City
Press' experience. When
petitioned he has ordered the
unsealing of certain court
documents, in a North Korea crypto-currency
conference case and the tech /
child sex sentencing
of Peter Bright former of
ArsTechnica, both of which
Inner City Press covered and requested.
And Judge Castel is certainly
in the mainstream in his March
12 psoition. But should it be
rethought? Is there a right?
Should there be? Watch this
site.
The case is US v. Diaz, 15-cr-379
(Castel).
***
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