By Matthew Russell Lee
SDNY COURTHOUSE, April 10 – An ICE officer was bitten in the Bronx on March 3, it was alleged on April 10 in Courtroom 5A of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. Defendant Christopher Santos Felix was led into the courtroom in shackles. He was asked if he, like so many others, waived the public reading of the charges against him. But he said no, and so they were read out.
On March 3 Santos Felix allegedly bit a DHS - ICE officer in 3115 Sedgwick Avenue in the West Bronx. He pled "no coupable," not guilty, and will have another hearing on April 16. He was led off in shackles by marshals who looked more on guard that usual.
On April 4 a long time petty criminal was brought shackled into Federal court o\\ after serving three years in state penitentiary for stealing appliances from a department store. This was deemed a violation of supervised release, and the Assistant US Attorney argued for no bail. But Stanley Bamber was born in Newark and still has family in New Jersey. He could live with his brother, his assigned lawyer argued, pending arguments before SDNYJudge Alison Nathan, occupied the same day with Elon Musk. It was finally agreed that ifProbation approves and radio frequency electronic monitoring is in place, the 60 yearold Bambury may see the light of day. Between 1976 and 2000, the prosecutor said, Bamber was charged with crimes 35 times. His was the last case of the day; in the elevator Inner City Press asked the AUSA about his record and got a Have a good night. Okay then - just another day in the SDNY. Johnny Morgan is suing the United States for a rectal search he endured in the Metropolitan Correctional Center at 150 Park Row, right next to the SDNY. On April 4 beforeSDNY Magistrate Judge Debra Freeman, the government presented an expert Roy Lubit who said that Morgan is a "malingerer" and blamed his pain on abuse suffered earlier at the hand of his own mother. But even government expert Lubit said that the rectal entry should not have happened. It is, in fact, an outrage. Inner City Press was the only media in the smallish courtroom, compared to dozens of reporters two hours later for Elon Musk. While some might question taxpayer money going to pay damages for what happened to Mr. Morgan, what about public money for an expert witness to insult the torturee? We'll have more on this. The Federal Defenders scored a big win in a misdemeanor proceeding that only Inner City Press attended and covered on April 2. They defeated the U.S. Attorney's Office which argued that the simple assault they agreed to on a dispute on a cruise ship required allocution to actual physical conflict. There was case law on the Federal Defenders' side, and a plea to making a threat on the cruise ship - in "international waters" -- was found sufficient. The case was United States v. Batista, 18 Cr. 730 (NRB).
