SDNY COURTHOUSE, Nov 6 – An 80-year old man charged with defrauding political donors of $250,000 with fake website for Bernie Sanders and now former Presidential candidate Beto O'Rourke, John Pierre Dupont, was presented and entered not guilty pleas late on November 6 in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York Magistrates Court, before chief Magistrate Judge Gabriel W. Gorenstein.
Inner City Press was the only media - the only person - in the Mag Court gallery.
Dupont appeared disheveled and his court-appointed lawyer said he has Alzheimer's and kidney failure. He was also arraigned for bail jumping, having failed to appear then been detained in Arizona and Oklahoma and finally transferred to New York.
Dupont did not argue to be released on bond, but did request and receive medical order from Judge Gorenstein. His lawyer asked that he be taken to a real hospital and not just treated inside the Metropolitan Correctional Center.
The indictment for wire fraud and identity theft, signed under seal by SDNY Magistrate Judge Katharine H. Parker on June 13 and unsealed on November 6, said that the defendant also goes by the aliases John Gary Rinaldo and John Gary.
The second case, for bail jumping, was not yet in PACER when Inner City Press checked after the arraignment. It has been assigned to SDNY Judge Edgardo Ramos, currently presiding of a trial concerning the purported crypto currency OneCoin. Dupont's wire fraud case is US v. Dupont, 19-cr-444 (Berman). More on Patreon here.
