By Matthew Russell Lee, Patreon
BBC - Guardian UK - Honduras - ESPN
SDNY COURTHOUSE, Dec 4 – Ari Teman, raising prosecutorial misconduct up to the day of his scheduled sentencing on December 1, learned on that day that his defense lawyer is married to a prosecutor.
U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York Judge Paul A. Engelmayer held the proceeding. Inner City Press covered and tweeted it.
From the first moment, Judge Engelmayer said he would not be imposing sentence in the proceeding. He expressed amazement that the conflict wasn't disclosed to him, particularly by the prosecutors usually so fast to request so-calls Curcio hearings. He discovered it as he prepared remarks about having known the lawyer.
But a simple Internet search finds that defense lawyer Noam Korati Biale of Sher Tremonte LLP is married to Margaret Graham, who appears working an SDNY prosecutor in press releases.
Teman added that Biale and Sher Tremonte were specifically retained to work on Brady disclosure issues, citing US v. Nejad, US v. Ahuja and other cases covered by Inner City Press.
He also noted that since people are working at home, it is more possible for spouses to overhear each other's work.
So sentencing was adjourned, as were the Bank of America issues Inner City Press covered earlier in the day, here.
Now on December 4, on a delay and seemingly with redactions, the transcript went into the docket, at least on the Press Room terminal. From it:
MR. BIALE: Perhaps what makes sense is for -- I think where your Honor is headed, that we should break and have a discussion with Mr. Teman about this.
THE COURT: Well, we're going to do a little more than that.... I have seen, in fact, at least one instance in which a defendant, following careful Curcio proceedings, resulting in the questioning under oath of the defendant by the Court, knowingly waived the conflict presented by one of his lawyers being married to an AUSA in the office that is prosecuting him.
Which case was that? In any event, it didn't happen here - Teman fired Biale (though as of December 4 at 9 pm Biale is still listed in the docket). We'll have more on this.
The case is US v. Teman, 19-cr-696 (Engelmayer)
***
Your support means a lot. As little as $5 a month helps keep us going and grants you access to exclusive bonus material on our Patreon page. Click here to become a patron.
Feedback: Editorial [at] innercitypress.com
SDNY Press Room 480, front cubicle
500 Pearl Street, NY NY 10007 USA
Mail: Box 20047, Dag Hammarskjold Station NY NY 10017
