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 John Gleeson, granting a §2255 motion, vacated petitioner’s guilty plea in light of the government’s misleading pre-plea disclosures, which omitted any mention of “warrantless wiretaps” under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act amendments of 2008. Magistrate Judge Gary R. Brown invited plaintiffs, whose house was damaged by Hurricane Sandy, to apply for sanctions as compensation for defendant insurer’s deceptive engineering report, and ordered further discovery relating to such conduct in all Sandy-related cases.
Judge Eric N. Vitaliano applied a variety of factors in ordering a restitution award of $2,000 against a particular defendant in a child pornography case involving one victim and hundreds of other defendants sharing culpability for her losses. And Judge Raymond J. Dearie declined to dismiss plaintiffs’ federal claims against the City of New York for failing to discipline a police officer who proceeded to participate in mob-related murders.
