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Law360 (May 12, 2020, 11:28 PM EDT) -- A federal judge in Brooklyn blasted an attempt to spring a recovered COVID-19 patient from prison as "reckless," telling a defense attorney that the request made the court question whether the lawyer could be trusted.
U.S. District Judge I. Leo Glasser's emphatic denial of attorney Robert Osuna's emergency motion for a sentence reduction for James Gomez came during May 8 arguments on the motion held by phone.
"I think you should know, Mr. Osuna, that the most significant factor for every lawyer is his credibility, and you put your credibility in question when you submit this petition that you submitted," Judge Glasser told the lawyer.
The judge said the "representations in this petition that you made were reckless and were not true."
Osuna filed the emergency motion on May 5, which he said was roughly three weeks after Gomez tested positive for the novel coronavirus.
During arguments on Osuna's motion, Judge Glasser focused on the fact that the motion stated the attorney had been "unable to speak to [Gomez] for several weeks," and the lawyer had relied on Gomez's family for details about his client's condition instead of asking for Gomez's actual medical records from the prison.
"I am not going to impose sanctions on you, which I really could," Judge Glasser told Osuna. "But more troublesome is that the petition that you have submitted, they raise questions in the mind of some other judge who gets a petition like this as to whether how many petitions like this are being filed without any real justification."
Prosecutors who opposed Osuna's motion said Gomez pled guilty in April 2017 to conspiracy to distribute and possess drugs, with the intent to distribute 500 grams or more of cocaine.
Gomez was sentenced to five years behind bars, the statutory minimum, to be followed by three years' supervised release.
He is currently being held at the federal correctional institution in Fort Dix, New Jersey, federal prison records show. His release date is May 20, 2021.
Osuna sought his client's release to home confinement with ankle monitoring at his parents' Brooklyn home and argued federal guidelines indicated Gomez was a candidate for release during the pandemic because he is "very overweight."
But prosecutors who opposed Osuna's motion cited emails Gomez sent acquaintances in the early days of May in which Gomez said, "I feel 100%" and "I'm feeling way better now." The government obtained Gomez's medical records from the prison, but redacted them in its opposition, citing the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act.
During arguments, Judge Glasser told Osuna that requests like his don't only hurt his client, but force judges to regard all coronavirus release requests with more suspicion.
"The Bureau of Prisons is doing the best it can under the circumstances, which is no fault of their own," the judge told Osuna. "Everybody is dealing with the terrible, terrible situation. You make it worse when you submit a petition such as the one you submitted."
In a statement emailed to Law360 on Tuesday, Osuna said, "The government obtained my client's medical chart which showed his symptoms had improved. I still believed it was incumbent upon me to ask for a reduced sentence to protect my client, the other inmates and the staff working at Fort Dix. The government and the court disagreed."
Osuna said Gomez is a nonviolent offender and cited media reports and a lawsuit brought by the ACLU of New Jersey alleging the Garden State facility was not effectively managing its pandemic response.
"I hope my client can serve the remainder of his sentence without any further medical complications," Osuna said.
A representative for the Eastern District of New York declined to comment Tuesday.
The government is represented by Josh Hafetz of the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of New York.
Gomez is represented by Robert Osuna of the Law Office of Robert Osuna PC.
The case is U.S. v. Gomez, case number 1:17-cr-00169, in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York.
--Editing by Janice Carter Brown.
For a reprint of this article, please contact reprints@law360.com.
