This column reports on several significant, representative decisions handed down recently in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York. Judge Jack B. Weinstein applied the First Step Act of 2018 to reduce a 2009 sentence to time served. Judge Raymond J. Dearie found that the government’s untimely production in a criminal case of voluminous material, much of it in Swahili and some of it favorable to the defense, required a new trial under Brady v. Maryland, 373 U.S. 83 (1963). And Judge I. Leo Glasser found no merit to plaintiffs’ claims for overtime under the Fair Labor Standards Act and New York Labor Law, given the FLSA’s Motor Carrier Exemption.

Sentence Reduction—First Step Act of 2018

In United States v. Simons, 07 CR 00874 (EDNY, April 22, 2019), Judge Weinstein reduced a 12-year sentence, imposed over a decade ago, to time served in one of the first cases under the First Step Act of 2018, Pub. L. No. 115-391, 132 Stat. 5194 (2018).