Mr. R. Kelly was famously found guilty by the jury on all 9 counts, which break down into a gutsy, novel Racketeer Influenced Corrupt Organizations (RICO) count and 8 counts under the Mann Act addressing sexual relations with underage victims.
Mr. Kelly was defended by 8 lawyers according to the docket on PACER (Public Access to [Federal] Court Electronic Records). He was successfully prosecuted by three prosecutors from the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of New York.
Each of the three prosecutors is a woman. Each is a very accomplished, very successful criminal lawyer.
They were led by ELIZABETH GEDDES, ESQUIRE. Ms. GEDDES, a member of the U.S. Attorney's Office for 15 years, heads the Civil Rights Section of the Criminal Division at E.D.N.Y. As is so clearly evidenced by this case, her specialty is the prosecution of racketeering and organized crime.
Like each of the three prosecutors, Ms. GEDDES has a distinguished resume apart from her work at E.D.N.Y. She is an adjunct at N.Y.U. in Clinical Law.
NADIA SHIHATA, ESQUIRE has been with E.D.N.Y. for 10 years and has been the Chief of the Organized Crime and Gangs Section for nearly 2 and 1/2 years. She graduated from the University of Michigan Law School in 2003, where she was the Editor-in-Chief of the prestigious Law Review. At Michigan Law, she also received the Order of the Coif, one of the higher honors any law student can receive.
Ms. SHIHATA's distinguished resume does not stop there, however. She got an L.L.M. from N.Y.U. in 2008. She is an adjunct at Columbia Law.
The third member of the prosecution trio is MARIA E. CRUZ MELENDEZ, ESQUIRE. She is the Deputy Chief of the Civil Rights Section at E.D.N.Y. She graduated from Harvard in 2001 and in an unusually positive mark of distinction for Notre Dame Law School, she is a 2006 graduate of Notre Dame Law.
These accomplished lawyers are demonstrably competent and so they compare very favorably with the department of justice personnel who have appeared in past articles posted here. The doj could not do better than making use of the talents of these three lawyers in every case they can handle for the United States.
MERRICK GARLAND, let those who have eyes to see, let them see; let those who have ears to hear, let them hear. Bring these people in to your depleted department and let them prosecute the January Sixers, and others. That would be a terrific solution. The results will speak for themselves.
The results speak for themselves now.
This article was posted in a slightly different version on Claims and Issues Blog on the last day of September, 2021. Reprinted here with permission.
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