| US Said Malik Hawkins in
Wheelchair Should Remain in MDC Now Gets
Mandatory 5 Years
By Matthew
Russell Lee, Patreon
BBC
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SDNY COURTHOUSE,
Jan 31 – When Malik Hawkins
was brought into Federal
Magistrates Court on guns and
drugs charges back on January
24, 2020 Assistant US Attorney
Louis Pellegrino opposed him
being released on bail citing
a risk of flight.
Malik
Hawkins was in a wheelchair,
and has been since 2011 when
he was shot and paraylzed from
the waist down.
AUSA Pellegrino acknowledged
that leaving the country could
be a challenge for Hawkins,
but noted that some of his
co-defendants has fled to
Vermont or "down South."
He
alluded to a social media post
on Instagram in which, he
said, Malik Hawkins bragged
about police who searched him
not finding what he had on him
- by implication, a
firearm.
U.S.
District Court for the
Southern District of New York
Chief Magistrate Judge Gabriel
W. Gorenstein, after
conferring at sidebar with
Pre-Trial Services, issued his
ruling. He said but for the
defendant's physical
condition, he would detain
him.
Judge
Gorenstein ordered that
Hawkins be released on $50,000
bond, with a GPS location
monitoring bracelet and his
original wheelchair.
But
Hawkins was arrested on
February 21, 2020 after
allegedly biting his
girlfriend's ring finger. On
March 9 he came to the SDNY
for a bail revocation hearing
and was found with marijuana
and a small razorblade like
knife. He has been in the MDC
since.
On April
3, 20202 he was arguing again
for release, citing
Coronavirus. Judge Andrew L.
Carter to whom the case has
been assigned said despite his
wheelchair - and now bedsores
- Hawkins is obviously able to
move around. He signed a
medical order but no more.
Hawkins remained detained.
Jump cut to
January 31, 2023, when Hawkins
in his wheelchair with two US
Marshals behind him was up for
sentencing before Judge
Katherine Polk Failla, who
expressed concern about the
hiding of contraband and
weapons in the wheelchair.
But there
was another side: Hawkins'
father, who had himself been
incarcerated, visiting him and
December and on January 30 in
the MDC. And Hawkins, after
serving five years minus what
he has already served, wants
to join him in Hudson, New
York. Defense counsel said she
was suggest even further from
New York City.
Judge
Failla went with the minimum,
and told Hawkins that will all
due respect she hoped not to
see him again in this setting.
His physical rehabilitation
has been delayed. But it is
not too late - he is only 29,
although he said he was
getting or feeling old.
The case is US v.
Hawkins, 19-cr-846
(Failla).
***
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