by Matthew Russell Lee, Patreon Book Substack
SDNY COURTHOUSE, April 15 – Mark Gonzalez pled guilty on August 31, 2022 before a Magistrate Judge to a conspiracy to distribute 400 grams and more of fentanyl.
Then, he says, from jail in Essex County he called his retained counsel and said he wanted to take back his plea.
He says that was before the assigned District Judge formally accepted his guilty plea.
On April 14, 2023 U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York Judge Victor Marrero held a proceeding. Inner City Press went and covered it.
Gonzalez wanted to fire his retained counsel.
The CJA lawyer present said he was honored to be on the CJA panel and would accept appointed. He asked the prosecutors to leave the courtroom, and that the transcript be redacted. Inner City Press was still in the courtroom, openly.
The upshot is that the change of counsel was made, and the CJA counsel will seek records about the alleged call, which would have been recorded, from the Essex facility.
The AUSA, back in the room, said they should get a copy too, and a copy of Gonzelez' CJA affidavit which the SDNY AUSA called a judicial record and a public document. (This is ironic because when Inner City Press has moved to unseal CJA affidavits, the SNDY US Attorney's Office has said it "takes no position.")
Judge Marrero said that Gonzalez had already been found eligible for CJA counsel, and that the CJA should filed a letter in two weeks about the fruits of the subpoena.
Inner City Press will continue to follow the case. It is US v. Gonzalez, 21-cr-288 (Marrero)
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