SDNY COURTHOUSE, July 30 – A man who pled guilty to bank fraud was told to use his pre-sentencing freedom to show what he could do with it.
Then he got charged with a homocide in Brooklyn. On July 30 U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York Judge Paul G. Gardephe hearkened back to his own advice to the defendent in March, seemingly of 2019, before the March 26, 2019 murder charge.
But the U.S. Attorney's Office's July 24, 2019 sentencing submission, in perhaps three typos, tells a different story. The timeline is all wrong, noted here by "sic" - "On December 7, 2019 [sic], the defendant entered a guilty plea.. The defendant's adjustment to supervision, however, was poor. On March 5, 2018 [sic] and March 18, 2018 [sic], the Court held bail hearings at which the Government and Pretrial Services detailed Mr. Reid's noncompliance... On March 26, 2019, the defendant was arrested and charged in New York State Court with homocide."
But Judge Gardephe described the alleged murder as being days after the two March conferences - so, in March 2019, not 2018. And how can Michael Reid have entered a guilty plea in December 2019, which hasn't happened yet?
Judge Gardephe said he did not consider the homocide charge in rendering his sentence, of 18 months for bank fraud. But he did mention a video, not apparently in the docket, of Reid with his co-defendant(s) just after the conference the very year of which is now disputed, or mis-stated in the sentencing submission. We'll have more on this. The case is USA v. Michael Reid, 18-cr-364 (PGG).
Ronny Ramirez Deluna worked a cocaine distribution business disguised as a livery cab service in lower and Midtown Manhattan from April 2016 to August 2017. He pleaded guilty, arguably safety valve eligible, before SDNY Judge Ronnie Abrams on July 30.
Judge Abrams, as a routine part of the plea allocution with Inner City Press the only media present, asked if Ramirez Deluna is a U.S. citizen. His lawyer B. Alan Seidler replied that he claims derivative citizenship and that it is being litigated. Seidler had written to Abrams back on June 17, putting off a June 19 status conference because "the parties are involved in plea discussions."
Judge Abrams endorsed that, pushing back the conference to July 16, then apparently to July 30 when the discussions bore or at last publicly showed fruit. It had been some time coming: despite a May 2018 indictment, Ramirez Deluna was not apprehended and applied for bail before Judge Abrams on February 5, 2019.
Then Judge Abrams asked, "Why did it take so long for Mr. Ramirez Deluna to be arrested?"
Assistant US Attorney McGinness said that Ramirez Deluna had retained a defense lawyer at that time who made an appearance on the docket "but the DEA was not able to apprehend him. He did not surrender." Then the US Marshals took over and interviewed " family member or a relative or a social friend of his." Then he turned himself in.
Before Judge Abrams on February 5, his then lawyer Mr. Velez offered as financially responsible people ready to sign Stephanie Delacruz who works at Montefiore Hospital. "She is his girlfriend. She makes $60,000," Mr. Velez said.
AUSA McGinness replied that "he is not only a risk of flight, he has been in flight."
Judge Abrams said, "I find this baffling. I haven't had a situation before where a defense attorney filed a notice of appearance and yet his client stayed where he was instead of fleeing, didn't surrender." The Bronx is large.... None of this was covered at the time, nor now: it is part of the vast otherwise unreported part of the SDNY's docket.
Judge Abrams denied bail, but put it on a fast track back in February. Now this guilty plea, with the specter of a safety value. The sentencing is set for November 15. Inner City Press, working on these stories while perched over a Pacer terminal for months, intends to be there. Watch this site. The case is USA v. Ramirez Deluna, 18-cr-351 (RA).
