EDNY COURTHOUSE, Sept 30 – A man
named Margarito Ortega was set for a change of plea to
guilty on September 30, before EDNY Judge William F.
Kuntz.
But
he was late.
It was not his
fault: he is incarcerated in MDC-Brooklyn. But the US
Marshals brought him into Judge Kuntz courtroom 20
minutes after the noon start time.
In the
gallery, along with Inner City Press, were three women,
one a teenager, and a teenage boy. The defendant when
brought in smiled at them, winking at his daughter who
waved back and him. And then wiped tears from her eyes.
Judge
Kuntz was plowing through the guilty-plea script,
including this time the consent to deportation. The
defendant said yes, in Spanish, to every question; he
added that in Mexico he had never gone to school.
When Judge
Kuntz asked if he understood he was agreeing to
deportation he said, I on wish I weren'te be deported.
Judge Kuntz
demanded, What? The AUSA suggested he ask the question
again, to get a Yes I understand.
No, Judge
Kuntz said, I'm going old school. And he read back to
the defendant every line of the form that he had signed.
There were
tears, there was complaints. But there will not be an
appeal. Except by Inner City Press, to Judge Kuntz'
September 3 totally sealing of a case.
