SDNY COURTHOUSE, June 24 – 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 24Magistrate Judge Robert W. Lehrburger in processing a defendant named Hector Turbi referred to an already arraigned co-defendant Ricardo Ayala, from which Inner City Press could dig backwards into the case.
Earlier in the month on June 12 Ayala was arraigned in the Mag Court by Magistrate Judge Katharine H. Parker. Even then Assistant US Attorney Michael Longyear said a conference had been set before District Judge William H. Pauley III for June 26 at 12:30. There was a medical request, off the record.
On June 24 Longyear apologize for throwing the curveball that Turbi was there not only for presentment but also arraignment, two days before his joint conference with Ayala before Judge Pauley. Turbi was picked up in Boston and arrived, it sounded like, by market transport. His lawyer did not seek bond, saying "there is an immigration issue to track down." Before June 26? Watch this site. O
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...
