C2F0ANNVD1 1 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 1 SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF NEW YORK 2 ------------------------------x 2 3 UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, 3 4 v. 10 CR 007 4 5 SANDY ANNABI and 6 ZEHY JEREIS, 7 7 Defendant. 8 8 ------------------------------x 9 9 New York, N.Y. 10 February 15, 2012 10 9:30 A.M. 11 11 12 12 13 Before: 13 14 HON. COLLEEN MCMAHON, 14 15 District Judge 15 16 16 APPEARANCES 17 17 PREET BHARARA 18 United States Attorney for the 18 Southern District of New York 19 JASON P.W. HALPERIN 19 PERRY A. CARBONE 20 Assistant United States Attorneys 20 21 WILLIAM I. ARONWALD 21 Attorney for Defendant ANNABI 22 22 ANTHONY J. SIANO 23 Attorney for Defendant JEREIS 24 25 SOUTHERN DISTRICT REPORTERS, P.C. (212) 805-0300 2 C2F0ANNVD1 1 (Case called; In open court) 2 THE COURT: Hello to my current favorite reporters. I 3 don't want anyone in the press to think that I don't love them, 4 people covering the current story are always my current 5 favorite reporters. 6 Now this, by the way, is Judge Allison Nathan, one of 7 the newest members of our court. Judge Nathan and a couple of 8 members of her staff are going to judge school today, they're 9 going to watch, okay, and see how we do it, administratively. 10 Okay, I have a letter from Mr. Aronwald. Thank you 11 very much. I have a letter from Mr. Siano, asking for an 12 adjournment. 13 The adjournment is denied. 14 As far as I'm concerned, we're ready to go. 15 MR. ARONWALD: Your Honor, I sent in two letters; one 16 in response to a -- 17 THE COURT: I only got one. 18 MR. ARONWALD: Sorry, I handed one up -- 19 THE COURT: I thought this letter was from Mr. Siano. 20 I apologize. You made a motion for an adjournment. 21 The adjournment is denied. 22 MR. ARONWALD: Yes, your Honor. 23 Can I ask that the letter application be docketed? 24 THE COURT: Absolutely will be docketed. 25 MR. ARONWALD: Thank you. SOUTHERN DISTRICT REPORTERS, P.C. (212) 805-0300 3 C2F0ANNVD1 1 THE COURT: As you may have figured out, there will be 2 things on the docket that would never otherwise have appeared 3 on the docket, as I overreact to the fact that too many things 4 were sealed on the docket, okay. 5 All right, I have taken to heart -- this is only three 6 pages. I have taken to heart Mr. Aronwald's request yesterday, 7 and I have included in the preliminary voir dire the first 8 question where I ask people about do they know individuals. I 9 have included a special question, or a couple of questions, 10 about I'm going to call them -- there are simply too many 11 people named Spano involved in Westchester politics. And 12 several of them are on this list. And, actually, I would like 13 for anybody who is named Spano to be identified by job title, 14 so that I can include that -- 15 MR. HALPERIN: Michael Spano is the Mayor of the City 16 of Yonkers. 17 THE COURT: Mayor of the City of Yonkers. Not only 18 several people named Mike Spano -- 19 MR. HALPERIN: Only two on the government's list. 20 THE COURT: Only two, great. Any other Spanos on your 21 list? 22 MR. ARONWALD: The only one I had on my list was 23 Senator Anthony Spano. 24 THE COURT: Okay. 25 MR. SIANO: You should be aware that the gentleman SOUTHERN DISTRICT REPORTERS, P.C. (212) 805-0300 4 C2F0ANNVD1 1 that the Court has identified now as the Mayor of Yonkers was 2 at one time a member of the New York State Assembly, so he had 3 two different -- 4 THE COURT: Former member of New York State Assembly. 5 MR. SIANO: So we're not multiplying Michaels, 6 unnecessarily. 7 THE COURT: All right. 8 MR. HALPERIN: Judge, we also note one thing on 9 defense list. Janet DiFiori, District Attorney on the defense 10 list, we see no reason why that name needs to be asked. 11 THE COURT: Let's put it this way, I'm happy to say 12 Ms. DiFiore's name in the course of this. Whether her name 13 arises during the trial or not is not an issue I need to decide 14 now. 15 All right. I suspect that it will not. But if it 16 does, who knows. Anyway, she is a reasonably well-known person 17 in Westchester politics. I'm happy to ask the jurors if they 18 know who she is. 19 Okay, now what I intend to do, as is my want, is ask a 20 few preliminary questions, and then we'll do some screening at 21 the side here, at the sidebar, for people who say they don't 22 have time, which in this case, we're not naive, will be a 23 number of people, people who say that they are familiar with or 24 know any of the people whose names might arise during the 25 course of the trial, or who are familiar with the locations, or SOUTHERN DISTRICT REPORTERS, P.C. (212) 805-0300 5 C2F0ANNVD1 1 who have medical problems that they say would -- then we'll 2 take them one at a time. And then we'll have a first round of 3 challenges to see who remains after that with the 4 administrative -- for administrative reasons they know people 5 or they know people too well, or they know too much about the 6 case, or they're sick, or they're important investment bankers 7 who can't possibly be away from the office for more than five 8 hours, or whatever excuses people have about why they can't 9 serve as jurors on the trial. And then we'll have a panel -- 10 I'm assuming that we're going to want to try to get 36, because 11 given the length of the trial, we're going to want four 12 alternates, would be my guess. 13 Okay. Let me just see if there are names I have a 14 difficulty pronouncing. Bicknese -- 15 Okay. Anyway, because there is gonna be a special 16 question about the recent publicity, Anthony Spano will be the 17 last name, and he'll get his own little introduction, okay. So 18 we're gonna try to bring the jurors in in the order that they 19 have already been randomized by the computer downstairs. The 20 computer has obviated the need for the drum. Do we have -- 21 THE CLERK: Making lists for you of the jurors in 22 randomized order. There will be seated 18 in the box, and the 23 next 20 or so we're going to try to get -- 24 (Off the record) 25 THE COURT: In this old fashioned era, you would have SOUTHERN DISTRICT REPORTERS, P.C. (212) 805-0300 6 C2F0ANNVD1 1 received from the jury clerk a list of the jurors in 2 alphabetical order. We would have put their jury cards in a 3 drum, we would have rolled the drum around, we would have 4 played bingo with the cards. In the miraculous computer age, 5 the clerk has a computer downstairs which generates the names 6 in random order, serving the purpose and taking the place of 7 the drum, all right. So what you have here is a list of the 8 names of the jurors as spit out by the computer in random 9 order, not a list of alphabetical jurors. And these are their 10 jury numbers. And this is how they will sit. 11 The first 18 will be in the box. 12 Juror number 19 will be in the left-most, my 13 left-most, your right-most seat closest to window in the first 14 row over here. The jurors will fill my left, your right side. 15 They will then fill your left, my right side of the back of the 16 courtroom. 17 Okay. Do we have jurors? 18 THE CLERK: We do, Judge. 19 THE COURT: Let's bring them in. 20 THE DEPUTY CLERK: Bring in the prospective jurors, 21 Judge? 22 THE COURT: Please. 23 THE DEPUTY CLERK: Juror number one, Hillary Altman, 24 seat number, 1 this way, ma'am. 25 Rachel Cauvin, seat two. SOUTHERN DISTRICT REPORTERS, P.C. (212) 805-0300 7 C2F0ANNVD1 1 Jeffrey a. Ackerman, seat three. 2 Denise Randolph seat four. 3 Kim Small, seat five. 4 Seat six, Virginia Smythe-Parke. 5 Seat seven, Lynn Yang. 6 Seat eight, Laura Goodwin. 7 Seat nine, Lisa Haber. 8 Seat 10, Lilly Ling. 9 Seat 11, Euphemia Reid. 10 Seat 12, Susana Jantz. 11 Seat 13, Frederick Conn. 12 (Continued on next page) 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 SOUTHERN DISTRICT REPORTERS, P.C. (212) 805-0300 8 C2FAAANNV2 Jury Voir Dire 1 COURTROOM DEPUTY: Seat 14 Meri Verille. 2 15, Jacquelyn James. 3 16, Loretta Langhorne. 4 17, Adam Kantor. 5 18, George Franz. 6 19 Jacqueline McGowan. 7 THE COURT: Okay. Now the back. 8 COURTROOM DEPUTY: Seat 20, Susan Fields. 9 21, Carmelo Montalvo. 10 22, Georgia Henry. 11 23, Anthony Brand. 12 24, Wendy Silva. 13 25, Robin Alba. 14 26, Jannae Harris. 15 27, Erik Nevala-Lee.