By Matthew Russell Lee, Patreon
BBC - Guardian UK - Honduras - ESPN
SDNY COURTHOUSE, April 22 – Jose Roldan was charged with conspiracy to transport six kilograms of meth from El Paso, Texas to The Bronx. He pleaded guilty.
On December 13, U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York Judge Mary Kay Vyskocil held his sentencing, after ordering him transported from Texas to New York to appear in-person. Inner City Press went and covered it.
Judge Vyskocil asked the requisite questions to accept the plea, and then turned to mandatory remand. In the back of the courtroom with Inner City Press were three U.S. Marshals, at the ready.
Roldan's white show CJA counsel tried to argue for extraordinary circumstances and no remand.
But there is a ten year mandatory minimum, absent the safety valve and, Judge Vyskocil ruled, no extraordinary circumstances. He was remanded, to be sentenced on April 20.
In advance of sentencing the US Attorney's Office submitted a heavily redacted letter. On April 20 they confirmed they would NOT give Roldan a 5K1.1 letter, since the case he cooperated on wasn't in the SDNY. Judge Vyskocil called this concerning. More than a full day after the proceeding, the sentence was put in the docket: "as to Jose Roldan (1). THE DEFENDANT: pleaded guilty to Count One of an Information. All open counts are dismissed on the motion of the United States. IMPRISONMENT: 54 months. The court makes the following recommendations to the Bureau of Prisons: The Court recommends defendant be housed in a facility in or close to El Paso, Texas. The defendant is remanded to the custody of the United States Marshal. SUPERVISED RELEASE: 5 years."
We will have more on this.
The case is US v. Roldan, 21-cr-645 (Vyskocil)
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