Honduras
Ex President
Juan Orlando
Hernandez
Moves To Sever
Trial From
Tigre Bonilla
By Matthew
Russell Lee, Patreon Maxwell
Book
SDNY COURTHOUSE,
Feb 3 – After the president of
Honduras' brother Tony
Hernandez was convicted of
drug trafficking and sentenced
to life plus thirty years, on
April 21, 2022 the
ex-president himself, Juan
Orlando Hernandez, was
extradited to the United
States.
[Espanol aqui]
Inner City
Press which covered the trials
of Tony Hernandez and Giovanny
Fuentes Ramirez immediately published
the unsealed JOH indictment,
which was returned on January
27, 2022 but left under seal.
On October 25,
JOH's October 27 proceeding
was pushed back, to November
15, 2022 - and when it
happened, Inner City Press was
there, and live tweeted,
thread here
and below.
On February 3,
JOH's lawyer moved to sever his
trial from that of Tigre
Bonilla:
"Dear Judge Castel, I
represent Juan Orlando Hernandez
Alvarado with respect to the
above noted matter. Pursuant to
Federal Rule of Criminal
Procedure 14, defense counsel
respectfully moves this Court on
behalf of the defendant for an
Order directing an election of
separate trials and/or counts;
or in the alternative, granting
a severance of defendants based
on the pervasive and unavoidable
prejudice that will result by
joinder of the defendants and/or
counts. We believe that the
defendant will suffer prejudice
from a joint trial, so much so
that the taint will be
“sufficiently severe to outweigh
the judicial economy that would
be realized by avoiding multiple
lengthy trials”. United States
v. Walker, 142 F.3d 103, 110 (2d
Cir. 1998). Moreover, it is the
defendant’s position that
prejudicial spillover will occur
in that evidence that is
admissible against one or both
of the other proposed defendants
(i.e. Mauricio Hernandez Pineda
and Juan Carlos Bonilla
Valladares (i.e. “El Tigre
Bonilla”) will be prejudicial to
the former Honduran President,
Juan Orlando Hernandez
Alvarado."
Full letter on Patreon here.
***
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