by Matthew Russell Lee, Patreon Book Substack
SDNY COURTHOUSE, Dec 1 – The entire sentencing submission by Tomas Colon, described as the "leader of a major drug trafficking organization," was filed under seal on November 16, 2023.
That evening, Inner City Press wrote to U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York Judge Valerie E. Caproni questioning and challenging the sealing, see below.
On December 1, with some still sealed despite Judge Caproni's orders, Colon's two retained counsel argued for a five year sentence. Judge Caproni, who began by saying she was "not amused" by their sealing, noted that Colon was a manager, had previously been convicted for drugs and continued despite a young, sick daughter (on whom much of the defense's sentencing argument was focused). She sentenced Colon to 151 months.
Back on November 20, Judge Caproni ordered the defense to by November 28 show cause. Colon's sentencing was pushed back to December 1.
On November 27 Colon's counsel asked to seal even his response to the OTSC. Inner City Press filed opposition, which Judge Caproni docketed and denied the sealing: Order and filing on DocumentCloud here.
Later on November 28, Colon's late-coming counsel Robert Blossner wrote in, seeming to argue that the memo and all letters are sealed because Colon held a proffer session, and blaming Inner City Press for having reported statements made in open court during the sentencing of another of his paying clients, Ahrman Burke (21-cr-550-VM), who cooperated against Alec Dupuis (21-cr-707-JSR).
Inner City Press reiterated that the sentencing material should be unsealed. The current record shows that Blossner has received payments originating from Colon's brother Hector, described as a target in the case.
On November 30 past noon, the sentencing memo was unsealed - it is now, in its entirely, on DocumentCloud here.
But additional letters and material were to be filed on December 1 but weren't, with defense counsel blaming their paralegal, or office closure. They should be filed December 4. Watch this site.
This comes as, for example, all of the sentencing letters of OneCoin crypto currency fraudster Sebastian Greenwood were sealed, regarding which Inner City Press filed a notice of appeal, and has consented to email service.
Sentencing materials must be public, to understand the bases of sentencing. Watch this site.
This case is US v. Colon, 18-cr-526 (Caproni)
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