EDNY COURTHOUSE, Oct 29 – The weekday
before the scheduled start of the baseball bribery trial
of suspended Cleveland Guardians pitchers Emmanuel Clase
and Luis Ortiz, along with bettor Robinson Vasquez
Germosen, a dispute about translations made it into the
often-too-sealed docket.
EDNY prosecutors wrote in that "the
government anticipates admitting translations of
Spanish-language text messages, videos, and voice memos
exchanged and among co-conspirators. The government
respectfully requests that the Court admit these
translations as evidence, rather than merely as jury aids.
The government will continue to confer with defense
counsel regarding the translations but, to the extent the
defendants do not stipulate to the authenticity of the
translations, the Court should require the defendants to
“raise any specific complaints about the translations or
proffer alternative translations before the start of
trial.†United States v. Yurofsky, 55 F. App’x 13, 14 (2d
Cir. 2002)."
Judge Kiyo Matsumoto, who has
yet to respond to a Press challenge to sealing (in another
of her high-profile cases, USA v. Carone, et al.), ruled:
"The Court is in receipt of the Government's motion in
limine [322] to admit its proposed English translations.
The Government's motion represented that Defendants are
not prepared to stipulate to the authenticity of the
Government's translations and disagree with the
Government's translations. If Defendants are not prepared
to stipulate to the authenticity of the Government's
translations or disagree with the Government's
translations, Defendants shall present their specific
proposed translations, by a court certified Spanish
interpreter, tomorrow at the final pre-trial conference.
Ordered by Judge Kiyo A. Matsumoto on 10/29/2026."
An October 30 final pre-trial
conference for a November 2 trial is cutting it close -
painting on the black, so to speak. Inner City Press
in its expanding EDNY coverage has come upon translation
issues, like here,
a recent change of plea interruptus - while still only
permitted trial-by-trial, unlike others. We'll have more
on this - watch this site
Just weeks before this new EDNY trial, a
lawyer in the Southern District case for deadly fentanyl
in Washington Square Park asked for an
adjournment.
Cesar de Castro explained the need:
"because a matter on which I was appointed late last week
in the Eastern District required unexpected and relatively
urgent international travel from October 16 to 18, 2026."
Inner City Press exclusively reported it, on October 9, here.
Days after his trip, the destination became
more widely known: the Dominican Republic. He had been
appointed to represent the fourth defendant in the Clase
case: Luis Arismendy Paca Mendez, who was then extradited
and detained. But since then, what? Much is
sealed in the docket - too much.
Ortiz quickly reiterated his request to
adjourn the trial, citing the newly arrived co-defendant.
Counsel to Vasquez Germosen wrote it to say all four
defendants should have a single trial, by implication
postponed. But on October 21, Ortiz put in his
exhibit list - like so many documents so far in the case,
entirely under seal. And on October 22 the US Attorney's
Office in a form of mea culpa wrote in, "When the messages
described above were recently converted to U.S.-Eastern
Time in connection with preparing trial exhibits, the
government observed that Clase’s exchange with Bettor-1
occurred shortly after, rather than during, the May 17,
2025 game."
Does this continued and accelerating
pace of filings mean that, despite the late arrival, the
November 2 trial is still on? Whenever it takes place,
Inner City Press will be covering it - in the right time
zone (albeit after the fall-back of daylight savings
time.)
