by Matthew Russell Lee, Patreon Book Substack
SDNY COURTHOUSE, Sept 24 – For days Inner City Press had heard from its sources there would be a "takedown" on February 6, 2024 each SDNY Magistrate Judge would handle seven to 10 defendants.
Arrests happen at 6 am. So at 5:55 am Inner City Press tweeted it, first to X subscribers with the spoiler alert: the expectation was that each of the current or former NYCHA employees would be released on bond the same day.
And then hours later at 9:39 am the prosecutors announced it. Media rushed around reporting it. Inner City Press had it first, and after discretely waiting, published it first. Then this thread of presentments, here
Jump cut to September 24, 2025 when one of it seems four defendants remaining, Garth Small, has a pre-trial conference. His two lawyers argued for a bill of particulars, and against the credibility of the prosecutions multiply-used witnesses and their identification of Small in a book of photographs. They quoted Judge Gardephe in the Cartajena case, which Inner City Press also covered.
Small's case was reassigned to Judge Valerie E. Caproni on August 27, 2025, and trial is still set for October 27.
The case is USA v. Small, 1:24-cr-208 (Caproni)
On October 9, NYCHA defendant Joy Harris was on trial, the first trial. On the stand was an immunized witness, Mr. Singh, who said he twice paid bribed to Joy Harris. He described her saying, I need something; Judge Lewis A. Kaplan said for the record, rubbing his index finger and thumb together.
Payments were made in the trash compactor room of the Taft Houses on East 114 Street in East Harlem.
On cross-examination it emerged that the second payment was after Joy Harris signed the certificate of service allowing the witness' company DK Bangla to be paid. Might that be a gratuity, under current precedent? Judge Kaplan admonished the defense lawyer to hold for closing arguments.
On October 10 another contractor was on the witness stand, who said he paid Joy Harris in increments of $500 for jobs such as installation of rolling metal gates, including at the [Lillian] Wald Houses on the Lower East Side.
On October 17, Harris was found guilty by the jury of bribery and extortion under color of official right.
On February 26, 2025, Harris was sentenced to 41 months in prison.
On May 13 the US Attorney's Office, responding to an inquiry not in the docket, wrote in that a pro se submission by Joy Harris should not be dockets, but rather only sent to them.
The trial was USA v. Harris, 1:24-cr-00207 (Kaplan)
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