By Matthew Russell Lee, Patreon
SDNY COURTROOM, Feb 10 – In the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York on November 19, 2021 a detention proceeding was held by Magistrate Judge Ona T. Wang on a defending brought in from the Dominican Republic the night before.
Willie E. Dennis, formerly a lawyer at K&L Gates, was charged with cyber stalking. At first the US Attorney's Office was OK with his release, but them things switched. Inner City Press live tweeted it below.
On October 13, 2022 Willie Dennis was on trial, sitting alone at the defense table with five at the prosecutors' table in front of him. One was reading his threatening emails to a K&L Gates target, who said he was terrified for his wife and children.
Slowly the gallery filled with lawyers for the next case, about Bernie Madoff. Some of them looked amused, then concerned. One asked, How's that on the stand?
Dennis made objections, and got sidebars. He was denied one at the end, but was told he can raise his issues on cross-examination. When the jurors left, so did the two US Marshals in the back row, as if on alert. Dennis put on his winter coat and arranged his papers on the table, soon to be used for the left over Bernie Madoff case.
On October 14 conducting cross examination, Dennis asked about how he had been locked out of his email and computer files at 1:44 am and if K&L Gates had ever done that before. Once, it was said, not in the New York office.
In the docket, heavily redacted, is an email from Willie Davis arguing that he is being prosecuted because he exposed the "penetration of KL Gates' network servers in Beijing, Shanghai, Hong Kong and Seattle by Chinese Communist Party agents." Photo here.
On October 17," conviction in federal court of WILLIE DENNIS for cyberstalking three victims, all his former colleagues at a global law firm (the “Law Firm”). The jury convicted DENNIS today following a one-week trial before U.S. District Judge Jed S. Rakoff."
On October 26, Judge Rakoff granted a request from Willie Dennis' brother Jeffrey to appoint counsel for him; the brother said Willie Davis is in Brooklyn Hospital for heart surgery. He wants his laptop - but now, it must be through counsel, in joint telephone calls to chambers.
On January 12, Judge Rakoff expressed sympathy and respect for the lawyering, but kept Davis detained: "ORDER as to Willie Dennis: By application dated January 6, 2023, defendant Willie Dennis seeks reconsideration of the Court's prior order remanding him pending sentence. See ECF No. 130 (seeking bond); Trial, Tr. 834:7-8 (remanding Mr. Dennis pending sentence). In support, Mr. Dennis's attorney, David Cohen, Esq., has submitted excellent papers that serve to reinforce the considerable sympathy that the Court already feels for Mr. Dennis and his aging parents in regard to the physical disabilities from which they suffer. Nevertheless, the Government has submitted responsive papers that equally reinforce the Court's prior conclusion that Mr. Dennis -- who was arrested while in the Dominican Republic, and whose behavior before and during the trial of this matter was frequently erratic -- remains a serious flight risk, as well as a potential danger to his former victims. Accordingly, Mr. Dennis has not overcome the presumption that someone convicted of the crimes of which he now stands convicted should be detained."
Docketed on February 3, 2023 were the sentencing submissions. The US wants 46 to 57 months; Dennis' counsel wants time served.
The US says Dennis on September 1, 2020 sent Ms. Bostick 140 text messages and Mr. Bicks 120 text messages, including about "marching kids into ovens."
Dennis' counsel says "Willie Dennis is a man who does not belong in prison."
On February 10, Willie Dennis got two years: "WILLIE DENNIS was sentenced today by U.S. District Judge Jed S. Rakoff to two years in prison for cyberstalking three victims, all his former colleagues at a global law firm."
From November 2021 and since: Willie E. Davis is currently in FBI custody in 290 Broadway. He has been assigned a Federal Defender, who has spoken 3 or 4 times today with Dennis by phone.
Judge Wang: Why is this not in person? AUSA: He arrived from outside the US, we don't know his vax status.
US says: "DENNIS, a U.S. citizen, was arrested this week in the Dominican Republic... He engaged in a campaign of harassment, intimidation, and threats against multiple individuals, including other partners, who worked at the [K&L Gate Law] Firm."
Dennis owns a multi-family building, and property in the Dominican Republic, but he has debts. He is being given a publicly-funded Federal Defender.
AUSA: He was arrested in the Dominican Republic on Nov 16 and arrested in the US yesterday. Judge Wang: You are charged with four counts of cyber-stalking.
Judge Wang took a break and returned, to rule: "I am accepting recommendation he be detained until fitted with a bracelet or co-signers can sign the bond."
Jump cut to August 15, 2022 when the case, reassigned to Judge Jed S. Rakoff, had on short notice a phone conference that pointed to an in-person one: "Minute Entry for proceedings held before Judge Jed S. Rakoff: Telephone Conference as to Willie Dennis held on 8/15/2022. Present were the defendant and his consulting counsel, Anthony Cecutti and Kastine Thiele, AUSA Rushmi Bhaskaran for the government and a court reporter. The Court sets a conference in courtroom 14B to consider the defendant's application to relieve consulting appointed counsel and substitute in new consulting assigned counsel."
Inner City Press went and live tweeted it here.
This case is US v. Dennis, 20-cr-623 (Rakoff)
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