SDNY COURTHOUSE, April 3 – Convicted Long Island politician Dean Skelos two more years on his sentence at Otisville Federal Correctional Institution.
Amid the Coronavirus crisis, he has asked U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York Judge Kimba M. Wood for compassionate release.
On April 3 in a telephone conference Judge Wood grilled Skelos' lawyers on why he is not instead applying for bailing pending appeal.
Assistant US Attorney Thomas McKay called this very telling, indictive that Skelos' real concern is not the possibility of getting COVID-19 at Otisville but instead using the crisis to get his sentence eliminated.
As to compassionate release, as Inner City Press has been reporting this week in a decision by SDNY Judge Andrew L. Carter and another pending from Judge P. Kevin Castel, there is a strong argument that exhaustion of administrative remedies is required before a federal District judge would grant release.
Skelos only applied to the Bureau of Prisons in late March, and BOP has thirty days to rule. Judge Wood directed Skelos' lawyers to address by Tuesday the question of why they are not asking for bailing pending appeal. Inner City Press will continue to report on this case. It is US v. Skelos, 15-cr-317 (Wood).
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