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 Sterling Johnson Jr. granted, in part, a new trial motion in a criminal case because there was no substantial evidence of specific intent to violate the statute in question dealing with export controls. Judge Brian M. Cogan declined to exercise supplemental jurisdiction over state and city claims for monetary damages in a suit brought under the Americans with Disabilities Act. And Judge Joseph F. Bianco denied a joint habeas petition claiming ineffective assistance of counsel in the failure to advise petitioners of deportation as a “presumptively mandatory” consequence of their guilty pleas.
Motion for New Trial Granted
In United States v. Diatlova, 12 CV 626 (EDNY, May 3, 2017), Judge Johnson granted defendant’s motion for a new trial pursuant to Rule 33, F. R. Crim. P., where the government failed to prove her “specific intent” to violate the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, 50 U.S.C. §§1701-1707 (IEEPA).
