On November 21, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York dismissed pending criminal charges against an indigent criminal defendant, charged anonymously, who faced trial on aggravated identity theft, false statement, and fraud charges in connection with his applications for government benefits and a passport. The trial was set to begin on December 11. Notably, the defendant had previously been convicted of identical charges, on nearly identical evidence, in the same district in 2012, which resulted in a lengthy term of imprisonment, years before the Firm represented him pro bono in connection with the new charges.
The Simpson Thacher team succeeded in convincing the prosecutors that, due to particular personal challenges faced by our client, they could not prove beyond a reasonable doubt that he had the requisite intentional state of mind to commit the offenses, and that a trial would therefore not be in the interests of justice. The Honorable Sidney H. Stein of the United States District Court for the Southern District ordered the dismissal on the government’s motion, and the defendant was promptly released from a federal jail the same day.
Simpson Thacher represented the defendant pursuant to its participation in the SDNY’s Criminal Justice Act panel. The Simpson Thacher team consisted of partner Martin S. Bell, of counsel Mark J. Stein, and associates Isabel Mattson, Miranda T. Hernandez, Melissa Vallejo and Andrew Marrero.