By Matthew Russell Lee, Patreon Maxwell Book
BBC - Guardian UK - Honduras - ESPN
SDNY MAG COURT EXCLUSIVE, Nov 21 - In the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York on November 21, a detention or release proceeding was held by Magistrate Judge Ona T. Wang on a cooperator, awaiting sentencing on January 4, who was charged with abusing his wife and biting her (according to Assistant US Attorney Matthew Shahabian).
Inner City Press was there, the only media in the Mag Court. So was the wife, and at the end, two children.
The defendant, Luis Benitez, testified as a cooperator in a trial in June 2022 before Judge Analisa Torres. His cooperation agreement required him to violate no laws. But he was arrested for what his lawyer John Kaley called a "domestic incident." More on Patreon here, including about the trial Benitez cooperated in, which Inner City Press also covered.
Kaley said the children had stayed downstairs in a car service, to not see their father in shackles. But Judge Wang said she had had children in her courtroom before.
After Judge Wang ordered Benitez detained until his January 4 sentencing, she summoned Mrs. Benitez back into the Magistrate Judges' robing room.
When they re-emerged, Kaley asked for reconsideration. But Judge Wang said no facts had changed. The children were brought in, and Benitez told them, in Spanish, see you in January.
AUSA Shahabian did not say in the domestic "incident" and the biting he described would cancel or modify any 5k.1 letter for lenient sentencing.
Kaley said he would be apparently to Judge Torres, as early as November 22. Watch this site.
The case is US v. Benitez, 19-cr-201 (Torres)
***
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.
