Cooperator in Bronx Crack Conspiracy Gets Time Served As Jenner and Block Lawyer Asks Press Why Cover It

By Matthew Russell Lee, Patreon

SDNY COURTHOUSE, May 20 – When Frederick Lee Burgos came up for sentencing on May 20 he faced a guideline sentence of 100 to 125 months in prison, and an additional 120 month mandatory minimum, as part of a gang that sold crack in Hunts Point in The Bronx. 

After a proceeding in which his Jenner & Block lawyer asked Inner City Press why it was in the courtroom, what it's interest is, Burgos received a sentence of time served. Then there was an order to seal the transcript of the proceeding.

This was in the courtroom of U.S. DistrictCourt for the Southern District of New York Judge Gregory Woods, who has imposed other sentences in the wider USA v. Palermo et al.case. On April 15 Inner City Press covered the sentencing of another members of the conspiracy, Felix Cordero Senior, also described as low level but who did not cooperate, to 120 months: ten years.

  If the goal is to send the message the the U.S. Attorney's Office will minimize the gun-play and crack sales of cooperators, why seal the transcript? Why try to pressure the Press to leave the courtroom, or to not report on it? 

  The rationale appears to be that the cooperator is at risk. (Judge Woods gave weight to the fact that Burgos choose to remain at risk in the MDC in general population in order to see his son, rather than by moved to "GEO" further away.) But the Assistant U.S. Attorney said that Burgos' cooperation had been disclosed to co-defendant Ramirez, or at least to his lawyer. Was that under a confidentiality agreement? Is this any way to do justice?

  Earlier this year SDNY Magistrate Justice Ona T. Wang issued an oral order that the presscovering her bench trial of Ivan Nieves, a defendant who wrote racist graffiti on a sign at the the nearby African Burial Ground should not publish the defendant's address in The Bronx, which had been said in open court. Judge Wang later in the day acknowledged this was or would be prior restraint but asked thatthe address not be published. Inner City Press voluntarily complied. 

  Here, other than the pointed inquiry from the Jenner and Block lawyer, no such request was made (although Judge Woods and his genialcourtroom Deputy did confer, perhaps on this topic). As in the case before Judge Wang, Inner City Press is voluntarily self-censoring. But is this any way to run a public proceeding? 

  We'll have more on this - there is another Palermo sentencing set for later this month, and the sentencing submission of Palermo himself has just been filed, publicly, in the docket. Burgos' filing is nowhere to be seen. How much is missing? More on Patreon, here.Watch this site.

   In the same Palermo conspiracy, on April 15 when Felix Cordero Sr came up for sentencing he faced a guideline sentence of 120 to 150 months in prison as part of a gang that sold crack in Hunts Point in The Bronx. In the courtroom of U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York Judge Gregory Woods there were only the judge and his deputy, a court report, a lone Assistant US Attorney and defense lawyer, Cordero, two U.S. Marshals - and Inner City Press. The tale that emerged what that Cordero Senior was previously imprisoned for conspiracy to commit murder, then for trying to sneak heroin into jail, then for fleeing the halfway house towhich he was assigned. He then moved back to Hunts Point to work for a gang run by his own son Miguel Ramirez. In a reversal, Felix Senior took phone calls for his son, including inquiries into whether his son had guns for sale. Later Felix Senior was in a car with a Mr. Alicea, less than 18 years old at the time, fleeing the police. Alicea threw drugs and a gun out of the moving car.

 Judge Woods went through this history in detail before sentencing Cordero Senior to 120 months. His lawyer asked that he be assigned to the same prison as his son. Judge Woods said no, he would not recommend that. We'll have more on this sprawling case.  

In SDNY Jeremy Reichberg Gets 4 Years For Bribes to NYPD As Huberfeld and Ho Compared

By Matthew Russell Lee


SDNY COURTHOUSE, April 4 – Donor to and fundraiser for NYC Mayor Bill De Blasio Jeremy Reichberg had been scheduled to be sentenced for bribery on April 4, but it was pushed back to May 13. After nearly three hours of argument, Reichberg was sentenced for 48 months in prison, to begin on August 12, and a $50,000 fine. 

As is his way, U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York Judge Gregory Woods dug deal into the pres-sentencing report, which in this case involved a video with high production values, unlike the single angle video that recently preceded the immediate remand of narcotics defendant Jesus Lopez by SDNY Judge Valerie Caproni.


   These type of comparisons were rife at Reichberg's May 13 sentencing. His lawyer Susan R. Necheles pointedly noted that Assistant U.S. Attorney Martin S. Bell had argued for only one year in prison for Murray Huberfeld for bribing the boldest of NYC's Boldest, Norman Seabrook.


   Bell wrote that off to a decision on a plea agreement and noted that SDNY Judge Alvin Hellerstein sentenced Huberfeld to 30 months. This, Inner City Press readers will remember, is all that Patrick Ho got for bribery at the United Nations. But Bell made the NYPD out to be the greatest police force (albeit only that the people of this city know). Ms. Necheles objected to Bell recounting what unnamed police officers said about the importance for their credibility of rooting out bad apples. The gallery was full; one attendee blurted out, "Where the public officials?" Where indeed. We'll have more on this.

  ThIn April, one dispute involved whether the full $60,000 cost of a private jet to Las Vegas should be counted, since Jona Rechnitz claimed he owned the plane. Assistant US Attorney Bell said it should, that mere first class air fare to McCarran in Vegas wasn't the same. Judge Woods, so often with the underdog, seemed torn: is this defendants really an underdog? The proceeding was moved from Woods' usually empty courtroom 12C up to the larger 23A and it was almost full. Reichberg's lawyer will be out of the country from April 16 to nearly the end of the month. But the sentencing will happen - and Inner City Press will be there, watch this site.Inne on tnearlpm 

Also on April 4, as if in the parallel universe, a long time petty criminal was brought shackled into the SDNY, after serving three years in state penitentiary for stealing appliances from a department store. This was deemed a violation of supervised release, and the Assistant US Attorney argued for no bail. But Stanley Bamber was born in Newark and still has family in New Jersey. He could live with his brother, his assigned lawyer argued, pending arguments before SDNY Judge Alison Nathan, occupied the same day with Elon Musk. It was finally agreed that if Probation approves and radio frequency electronic monitoring is in place, the 60 year old Bambury may see the light of day. Between 1976 and 2000, the prosecutor said, Bamber was charged with crimes 35 times. His was the last case of the day; in the elevator Inner City Press asked the AUSA about his record and got a Have a good night. Okay then - just another day in the SDNY. Johnny Morgan is suing the United States for a rectal search he endured in the Metropolitan Correctional Center at 150 Park Row, right next to the SDNY. On April 4 before SDNY Magistrate Judge Debra Freeman, the government presented an expert Roy Lubit who said that Morgan is a "malingerer" and blamed his pain on abuse suffered earlier at the hand of his own mother. But even government expert Lubit said that the rectal entry should not have happened. It is, in fact, an outrage. Inner City Press was the only media in the smallish courtroom, compared to dozens of reporters two hours later for Elon Musk. While some might question taxpayer money going to pay damages for what happened to Mr. Morgan, what about public money for an expert witness to insult the torturee? We'll have more on this.