By Matthew Russell Lee, Patreon Maxwell book
SDNY COURTHOUSE, Jan 23 – Two children are alleged to have been wrongfully removed from the UK to NYC.
On November 4, 2022, U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York Judge P. Kevin Castel held a proceeding. Inner City Press covered it.
A question arose as to whether the plaintiff Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea is a full governmental instrumentality. Also, a question of standing.
Judge Castel ruled that within 14 days, the petitioner must file a letter-brief setting forth the basis for standing under the Hague Convention. Another proceeding as set.
Jump cut to January 23, 2023 in Judge Castel's courtroom. The defense was questioning a witness by video, about domestic violence and abuse claims, many of which the witness said she was not aware of.
Digging further into the docket, Davis Polk on January 24 got an exhibit sealed; a barrister's declaration cites the "extensive criminal record" of Mr. Samuel Ajala. Judge Castel has ordered respondent to refrain from making any threat to counsel for non-party CB-L, directly or indirectly.
Yet more digging in the docket finds that the case name in PACER misspells the respondents name as "Banfa" Louis (it is Tara Bafna-Louis), and find the redacted email that led to the cautionary order. In it, Bafna-Louis a/k/a Talia Becker wrote to Davis Polk's Dara Sheinfeld:
"Dara, can you imagine the memes that one could come up with for this? They are endless! 13-year old boy with so many lawyers from Davis Polk that they all forgot to show up in federal court?! Be prepared for us to battle this out in court and in social media / media."
The case is docketed at (with misspelling of respondent's last name) Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea v. Banfa-Louis, 22-cv-8303 (Castel)
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