By Matthew Russell Lee, Patreon Maxwell Book
BBC - Honduras - CIA Trial Book - NY Mag
EDNY COURTHOUSE, August 12 – Victorio Abadia Morales and Kenny Whiteley are charged in a narcotics conspiracy by the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York.
There's a problem: the EDNY Calendar lists the lead defendant as female, VictoriA Morales. Photo here.
On August 12, EDNY Judge LaShann DeArcy Hall held a proceeding. Inner City Press covered it.
Discovery was discussed; a letter had been filed by AUSA Victor Zapana, on "discovery in accordance with Rule 16 of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure. The discovery materials have been transmitted by USAfx, a file sharing system. The materials consist of text messages to and from a cellular device used by Kenny Whiteley, Bates numbered VAM000306 to VAM000326."
None of that was placed in the docket; fine. But EDNY is taking the position that even sentencing memos are not judicial documents. Inner City Press has asked for a clarification or justification of this policy of secrecy from US Attorney Breon Peace's spokesman John Marzulli and, hearing nothing, from his associate Danielle Blustein Hass. Nothing.
In the August 12 proceeding, the defense OK-ed 60 days before the next conference. The Judge suggested October 7, then remarked on the record (and interpreted) that that's her wedding anniversary. Counsel said it was his birthday. So August 18 at 9 am it is.
The case is US v. VictoriO Morales, et al., 22-cr-199 (LDH)
On August 8 that Office wanted coverage of their bid to remand Fetty Wap a/k/a Willie Junior Maxwell II - but only on their terms.
Before a presentment at the Central Islip courthouse, for which there was no press or public call-in line, the pump was primed. But if a media misunderstood the instructions, and dared report the actions of the prosecutors, henceforth it would be excluded from the Office (publicly-funded) information, and its questions not answered. So much for due process - by a prosecutor's office.
Instead, this: "The musician, whose legal name is Willie Junior Maxwell II, was arrested in Newark, New Jersey, on Monday morning and indicted in federal court in the Eastern District of New York, according to John Marzulli, a spokesperson for the U.S. attorney for Eastern New York." Indicted? That happened in the past. "U.S. Magistrate Judge Steven Locke revoked Fetty Wap's bond on Monday afternoon, meaning he will remain in jail, Marzulli told [the] News." Speaking to some, not others.
Long after others got the apparently priceless detention memo, Inner City Press puzzled within it over this line / crime: "after John Doe called the defendant a rat, the defendant responded by saying, 'Your man is a rat.'" Detention memo on Inner City Press' DocumentCloud here.
Questions about this and other EDNY prosecutions will not be answered by the Office's ex-journalist spokesman John Marzulli. We'll have more on this.
More from the selectively distributed, created with public funds detention memo: "According to John Doe, the Facetime call occurred on December 11, 2021, and in the call the defendant possessed a gun, threatened to kill him, and called an individual a 'rat,' despite the fact that this was a direct violation of both state law and the conditions of his release."
Ongoing disclosure: This was prepared without any assistance or answers from Eastern District of New York US Attorney's Office spokesman John Marzulli, ex-Daily News, who without hearing or appeal on August 8, 2022 decreed that said "his" / EDNY's publicly-funded information will henceforth go to some (including outside of New York) but not others, or other, like NYC-based Inner City Press. We have submitted requests for reconsideration; so far, nothing. We'll have more on this.
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