By Matthew Russell Lee, Patreon
BBC - Guardian UK - Honduras - ESPN
SDNY COURT Exclusive, March 24 – Eric Spencer is charged with a Hobbs Act robbery of a Channel store in Soho in Manhattan in 2021, of $200,000 in handbags.
On May 18, 2021 U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York Judge Gregory H. Woods held a proceeding. Inner City Press covered it.
Judge Woods asked about the evidence in the case.
The Assistant US Attorney cited surveillance video, Facebook posting obtained with no warrant needed, cell phone location data sought with a warrant, and body cam footage that, it seems, will have to be redacted.
Judge Woods said that at the next conference, he will set a trial date. And he did.
Jump cut to March 22, 2022. A week after Judge Wood signed a use of Force Order authorizing the US Marshals to use reasonable necessary force to remove Spencer from the Metropolitan Detention Center to come to court, jury selection began - not without incident.
Spencer told his appointed lawyer, Anirudh Bansal from the Cahill Gordon law firm, that prospective Juror Number 11 was a friend of a relative of his.
Bansal, noting later that he as an officer of the court he had and has a duty of candor, passed the information on and the juror was stricken.
Spencer was outraged that his lawyer had turned what he told him in confidential over to the government. Judge Woods convened a hearing away from the Jury Selection room, on the 26th Floor of 500 Pearl Street. Inner City Press was there.
Judge Woods asked if the Assistant US Attorneys should leave - they did - but to his credit (and following the law) did not ask the Press to leave. There ensued a colloquy between Judge Woods and Spencer, who spoke extremely quickly, about whether he was asking for a new lawyer or just to get this issue addressed. It seemed it was the latter.
Judge Woods wrote it off to Bansal's lack of time to tell Spencer he would pass the information on, before he passed it on. But then it seemed there was more. Bansal, also to his credit, after some white noise said that Spencer might not communicate with him during the trial.
After more questions from Judge Woods, it was determined that Spencer will answer Bansal's questions. But how will Bansal know what to ask? [There will be a transcript of the March 22 proceeding, word by fast word.]
The parties returned to the jury selection room, as did Inner City Press. Down there, with more chairs as COVID social distance recedes, prospective Juror 25 then 26 were called forward to white noise, the latter with a Yes answer only to question 67...
In opening argument on March 23 another Cahill lawyer, not Bansal, was telling the jury that the only photo of Spencer that day was in Brooklyn when a loud audio feedback loop began. Court staff valiantly worked to fix it; a juror in a UNICEF sweatshirt raised his hand and asked to take a break. The gallery was more full than usual, seemingly with people from Cahill Gordon.
On March 24, with a much emptier courtroom, a security guard testified as to video of three men crossing Wooster Street toward Chanel. One wore red and black Jordans, another was in gray and the third man in green. Bansal did the cross and established that the guard never saw their faces. Later whether the defense can or will raise in closing that the case was over-charged arose. Inner City Press aims to continue to follow the trial.
The case is USA v. Spencer, 21-cr-193 (Woods)
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