SDNY COURTHOUSE, June 25 – While many even most cases in the Magistrates Court of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York are sealed, on June 25 before Magistrate Judge Robert W. Lehrburger ordered detained a defendant named Martinez charged with 33 kilograms of cocaine, a first name - Eliot - and a case number were provided: 19-mj-5950.
But by 5 pm, even after Judge Lehrburger had detained Mr. Martinez and set a July 8 hearing, PACER said "Cannot find case 19-mj-5950." So Inner City Press reports: Judge Lehrburger said he did not find a risk of flight, but given the heavy weight of coke, and that Martinez violated the terms of his probation in New Jersey, he would be detained. This came four hours after an appearance before Judge Castel of a defendant accused of offenses against children, a defendant who unlike Martinez was allowed free on bond, to his mother's house in Freehold, New Jersey...
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Hector Lebron was sent to U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York in April by Northern District of Ohio Judge James G. Carr - and then was forgotten for more than two months in the Metropolitan Correctional Center in lower Manhattan.
On SDNY Magistrate Judge Sarah Netburnbegan what her Deputy said was the last case of the day by asking when the defendant before her came into SDNY custody. The answer was surprising: Lebron was "writted over" on April 24, from a Federal court in Ohio, had been forgotten since then and now should have a hearing before SDNY District Judge Alison Nathan, date not yet set.
Inner City Press was the only media in the Magistrates Court and strained forward to hear the number of the case, but none was given. Only afterward was it able on the PACER terminal in the SDNY Press Room to find a Judge Nathan case involving Hector Lebron. But this once dated back to February 2014, with Lebron on Supervised Release until October 31, 2018, signed by then SDNY Judge Mary M. Lisi and Magistrate Ronald L. Ellis.
Further research by Inner City Press found an April 6, 2019 order by Judge James G. Carr Sr. of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Ohio that Lebron by remanded to the custody of the U.S. Marshall and transferred to a "facility as close to New York as possible."
The MCC is right next to the SDNY courthouses and the U.S. Attorney's Office. But no one knew Lebron was there for two months. On June 21 in the empty Mag Court the Assistant U.S. Attorney said his colleague, on trial, had only seen the e-mail the night before.
Judge Netburn said she would investigate it, and told Mr. Lebron she wasn't sure it was her apology to make...
