By Matthew Russell Lee, Patreon Transcript
BBC - Guardian UK - Honduras - ESPN
SDNY COURTHOUSE, Nov 11 – Michols Orsini Quintero is charged with being a drug king pin in Venezuela, Turkey, Russia and the Dominican Republic.
On September 23, 2020 U.S. District Court for the Southern District Alvin K. Hellerstein held a publicly-noticed proceeding. Inner City Press covered it.
It emerged that AUSA Amanda Houle has made ex parte sealed filings with Judge Hellerstein, with not a wisp of them in the docket.
There was a discussion of showing some but not all of the information to Orsini's lawyer, Sabrina Shroff, on an "attorney's eyes only" basis. Shroff, to her credit, pushed back.
On October 28, 2020Judge Hellerstein held another proceeding after the US Attorney's Office late-produced some eight terabytes of information, more than double the volume it produced before one of the co-defendant pleaded guilty. This is post the US v. Nejad case Inner City Press has reported on and in which it anticipates making a filing - watch this site.
While Shroff is still digging through the terabytes, attorney Christine Chung was mulling withdrawing Victor Mones Coro's plea.
Mones moved to withdraw the plea; the Court accepted the withdrawal of plea.
On November 11, 2020 Mones requested sanctions, stating that on October 25 the US Attorney's Office turned over a hard drive containing, erroneously, "confidential material regarding another investigation that DHS had mistakenly copied onto the drive." We'll have more on this.
In the interest of increased transparency, here is the October 28, 2020 transcript, on Inner City Press' DocumentCloud, here.
Jump cut to November 9, 2021, when Judge Hellerstein held another conference on Orsini Quintero, eager to set a trial date. While the defense asked for June or July, Assistant US Attorney Sam Adelsberg pushed for January. When offered January 23 he cited a conflict; the trial is set, as much as it can be, for January 31.
Judge Hellerstein asked if the AUSA has presented Orsini with a Pimentel letter estimating the government's view of the sentencing range. Yes, was the answer. But it was not taken, it was left.
Inner City Press will cover the trial, whenever it happens.
This case is US v. Orsini Quintero, 19-cr-144 (Hellerstein)
***
Your support means a lot. As little as $5 a month helps keep us going and grants you access to exclusive bonus material on our Patreon page. Click here to become a patron.
