SDNY COURTHOUSE, July 22 – While many even most cases in the Magistrates Court of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York are sealed, as Inner City Press exclusively reported on July 2 before Magistrate Judge Barbara Moses a defendant charged with contraband cigarettes and bribes, dressed in US Postal Service pants and referred to only as "Liu" was given as a bail condition a $100,000 bond.
Then Judge Moses asked if the Burmese consultate should be notified.
On July 22 Mister Liu re-emerged beforeSDNY Judge Jesse Furman, with a hard-working CJA lawyer who asked only for 45 days to review discovery and 30 days to file any motions. (A change in time was still not in the docket on PACER as of 5:45 pm; the case is USA v. Guo, 19-cr-39 and the postman's first name is Kenny).
Judge Furman has already set the trial date for the co-defendants for February 3, 2020. He asked Assistant U.S. Attorney Elizabeth Espinosa if Liu had been Mirandized and was told yes, in Cantonese. But doesn't he speak Burmese, as at the July 22 status conference? Actually, he speak Rakhine. He is a US Postal Service employee charged with bribery, accepting bribes, in connection with $30 million in untaxed cigarettes. We'll have more on this.
Back on July 1 some SDNY presentments had numbers: for example, "KENNETH SIDERS VOSR 12-cr-932."
Inner City Press went to the Mag court and found a defendent in dread locks with a hard-working CJA lawyer, explaining how when he got out of jail he went to live in the apartment which included a man who had raped his girlfriend. The downward spiral left him, the Assistant US Attorney said, arrested in a park. He shook his head, it was on Madison Street just by the courthouse; he had been on his way to come meet his parole officer.
Unlike bankers and alleged drug dealers, this Mr. Siders was not granted bond. He remains in detention.
