Corrupt Special Prosecutor Nelson Concedes Luthmann's Fake Facebook Conviction is Going Away
"Incompetent By Design" Prosecutor Confirms Luthmann Indictment, Conviction Built On Lies, Crimes
By Richard Luthmann
Eric Nelson is an “incompetent by design” Staten Island special prosecutor.
Eric Nelson is also a stone-cold criminal. I will present the facts, you decide.
Committing, Overlooking Crimes to “Get Luthmann”
In Russell v. United States (411 U.S. 423, 430, 431-432), the U.S. Supreme Court pointed out that a government agent did not “violate any federal statute or rule or commit any crime” in infiltrating a criminal enterprise and collecting evidence.
Then, citing Rochin v. California (342 U.S. 165), Justice Rehnquist significantly added that “we may some day be presented with a situation in which the conduct of law enforcement agents is so outrageous that due process principles would absolutely bar the government from invoking judicial processes to obtain a conviction.”
Today is that day. Luthmann’s “Fake Facebook” case is that case.
A special prosecutor is a law enforcement officer. They are the chief law enforcement officer. They are responsible for everything that occurs under them. To borrow from Harry Truman, the buck stops with them.
One thing that Eric Nelson could not do as a special prosecutor was commit crimes to ensure Luthmann’s conviction. And that is precisely what he continues to do.
Eric Nelson Makes a Disbarred Felon the “Legal Advisor” to the People of the State of New York and Then Lies About
Perry Reich was the Law Chair for the Queens County Republican Party. In short, he got railroaded, sent to federal prison, and lost everything.
In reality, I feel for the guy. Luthmann knows a thing or two about federal prison, politically-motivated prosecutions, and railroading.
But Eric Nelson was supposed to follow the rules, and they are clear. When you use a disbarred attorney to render legal advice, you commit the Unauthorized Practice of Law, a felony.
As stated in filed documents in Brooklyn Federal Court:
In that case, at an August 1, 2018, grand jury proceeding, sitting New York State Supreme Court Justice Ronald Castorina, Jr. committed perjury, suborned by Special Richmond County District Attorney Eric Nelson. Nelson also committed the felony of Unauthorized Practice of Law by knowingly engaging disbarred attorney and federal felon Perry Reich to help illegally circumvent Nelson’s duties as legal advisor to the grand jury. A complaint has been filed with the Public Integrity Unit of New York Attorney General Letitia James’ Office Submission # 1-419121442. The political nature of this criminal misconduct is unprecedented. The perjury of an NYS Supreme Court Justice and the commission of multiple felonies by a Special Prosecutor to secure a felony conviction could only have been the result of massive political pressure. I also reserve my rights to allow these proceedings to run their course because they may also produce evidence of misconduct, improper coordination with Federal Authorities, political contracts, or other issues that may be squarely relevant here.
There is much to unpack here, but we will do our best. Let’s put aside the perjury of sitting Supreme Court Justice Ronald Castorina, Jr., and focus on the Unauthorized Practice of Law. We will treat Lying Judge Ron in an upcoming installment.
The claim is that Eric Nelson used Perry Reich as his legal advisor while he was a special prosecutor. This claim isn’t Luthmann’s imagination. It comes from a “smoking gun” email between Nelson and Reich sent while Nelson tried to get Luthmann indicted in front of a Staten Island grand jury.
On Sun, Aug 12, 2018, 6:45 PM <ericnelsonesq@comcast.net> wrote:
There have been some questions as to the line of First Amendment political satire and what is discussed in the Perkins case. Do I need to explain the law to the GJ?
On Sun, Aug 12, 2018, 8:14 PM, Perry Reich <perry.reich@gmail.com> wrote:
Not in any detail. See people v calbud 49 ny2d 389
On Sun, Aug 12, 2018, 8:43 PM <ericnelsonesq@comcast.net> wrote:
Thank you. I am also going to include a misdemeanor false reporting an incident and stalking on a candidate.
Nelson was placed in a predicament. Despite his best efforts to tiptoe around the legal landmines that would blow up the Luthmann vendetta prosecution, there were questions about Luthmann, satire, and the First Amendment posed by grand jurors.
To be clear, the special prosecutor has a dual role in the grand jury. They present evidence, but they also serve as legal advisors. And it is in the role of legal advisor where Eric Nelson has most conspicuously failed.
GRAND JUROR: Can you state what freedom of speech, what is -- the second amendment?
GRAND JURY FOREPERSON: First Amendment.
MR. NELSON: First Amendment
GRAND JUROR: Can you tell us what the whole thing --
MR. NELSON: I'm not going to give a course on freedom of speech.
GRAND JUROR: I can look it up though?
MR. NELSON: You could look it up in terms of what freedom of speech means, but not in the context of this case.
GRAND JUROR: No, just --
MR. NELSON: You have a right to go on the Internet and look at anything as long as it doesn't pertain to this particular case.
GRAND JUROR: Okay.
Neither Nelson nor his masters could allow Luthmann “to walk” on such a pesky technicality as the Bill of Rights.
Enter Perry Reich. And along with him, Enter Sandman. The instant Perry Reich began giving Eric Nelson legal advice, both Nelson and Reich were committing felonies, and the indictment against Luthmann was legally put to bed.
The representative of the People of New York has no business committing felonies. And the Rule of Law will not tolerate it.
By Seeking Legal Advice From Felon Perry Reich, Special Prosecutor Nelson Violated Luthmann’s Due Process Rights
For this story, we are sticking with special prosecutor Nelson’s felonious activity: the unauthorized practice of law.
The Fake Facebook case is pending before Brooklyn Judge Donald Leo, a criminal court judge sitting as an Acting Supreme Court Justice. Absent popular election or gubernatorial appointment to the Court of Claims, the Chief Administrative Judge of the State of New York, through the Office of Court Administration, can make such appointments.
Jude Leo is a decorated former prosecutor for the New York County District Attorney’s Office, where he was assigned to the Trials Division and the Sex Crimes Unit. After that, he was an Assistant New York State Attorney General and Deputy Bureau Chief of the Sex Offender Management Bureau. He also has significant investigative experience.
I believe there is no greater calling than putting down predators and pedophiles. I had to live and deal with these scumbags daily for four years, the most notable being Anthony Weiner.
Special prosecutor Nelson puts all his eggs in one basket in his latest papers to Judge Leo. He says that since Luthmann took a plea, he waived his constitutional rights.
6. The claims in defendant's affidavit specifically should be denied for his allegations are not grounded in facts, and he makes are baseless and therefore meritless. The plea/sentence minutes dated October 27, 2020 (Mundy. J.) are detailed regarding Defendant's waiver of his constitutional rights, that defendant had a detailed understanding as to what he was pleading guilty to, and that he received effective representation during the pendency of the case and the plea of guilt. Exhibit A. 3
Nelson isn’t a great writer. According to his website, he specializes in collecting back child support. On Staten Island, those proceedings occur in a shed on Richmond Terrace, down the block from the NYPD 120 Precinct.
Nelson isn’t a great lawyer. He’s 100% wrong on the law and won’t be missed in the Bar when this case runs its course and he is disbarred. Most lawyers think he is an asshole.
This is what the law says, according to the U.S. Supreme Court:
A guilty plea is constitutionally valid only to the extent that it is “voluntary” and “intelligent.” Brady v. United States, 397 U.S. 742, 748, 25 L. Ed. 2d 747, 90 S. Ct. 1463 (1970). A plea of guilty entered by one fully aware of the direct consequences of the plea is voluntary in a constitutional sense “unless induced by threats (or promises to discontinue improper harassment), misrepresentation (including unfulfilled or unfulfillable promises), or perhaps by promises that are by their nature improper as having no proper relationship to the prosecutor’s business (e. g. bribes).” Brady at 755.
The Supreme Court didn’t explicitly mention CRIMES BY PROSECUTORS, probably because they didn’t think they needed to be said. But wise Chief Justice Rehnquist knew a few years later in Russell that “The Times They Are A Changin’.”
If any case is an exception to the Brady Rule, it is when a prosecutor, the representative of the People, commits a crime in the course of their official duties. Maybe Soviet or Communist Chinese justice is a “win at all costs” proposition. Crimes, frauds, and even murder can be acceptable in these authoritarian frameworks to secure a prosecution and conviction.
But that is not America. That is not our constitutional republic. Our rules reinforce the distinctly American legal and ethical obligations of prosecutors to see justice done:
“The [prosecutor] is the representative not of an ordinary party to a controversy, but of a sovereignty whose obligation to govern impartially is as compelling as its obligation to govern at all; and whose interest, therefore, in a criminal prosecution is not that it shall win a case, but that justice shall be done. As such, he is in a peculiar and very definite sense the servant of the law, the twofold aim of which is that guilt shall not escape or innocence suffer. He may prosecute with earnestness and vigor—indeed, he should do so. But, while he may strike hard blows, he is not at liberty to strike foul ones, It is as much his duty to refrain from improper methods calculated to produce a wrongful conviction as it is to use every legitimate means to bring about a just one.” Berger v. United States, 295 U.S. 78, 88, 55 S. Ct. 629, 79 L. Ed. 1314 (1935)
Prosecutor Eric Nelson cannot commit crimes to obtain convictions and have those convictions stand up. The Fake Facebook case is a glaring example.
“The instant circumstances are apparent exceptions to the general rule that a guilty plea generally extinguishes claims of any “antecedent constitutional violation.” United States v. Broce, 488 U.S. 563, 569, 109 S.Ct. 757, 102 L.Ed.2d 927 (1989); Tollett v. Henderson, 411 U.S. 258, 93 S.Ct 1602, 36 L.Ed.2d 235 (1973).
Even in cases where the Feds were trying to get members of the mafia or drug dealers who were responsible for deaths, this bright-line rule remains intact: The Good Guys don’t Break the Law.
Eric Nelson is not a Good Guy; His Continuing and Brazen Crimes Shock the Conscience.
The New York Supreme Court Appellate Division has discussed prosecutorial conduct which “shocks the conscience,” where dismissal of the case is the appropriate remedy. See, e.g., Nigrone v. Murtagh, 46 A.D.2d 343, 357, 362 N.Y.S.2d 513, 526 (App. Div. 2nd Dept. 1974); People v. Crump, 254 A.D.2d 742, 742, 680 N.Y.S.2d 765, 766 (App. Div. 4th Dept. 1998).
Eric Nelson is a different case entirely. As we find out, the cover-up is often worse than the crime. Eric Nelson continues to lie to Judge Leo to cover up his felony criminal involvement with Perry Reich.
The question is, how many of his lies will Nelson be able to get past Judge Leo?
We’re thinking not many.
This is what special prosecutor Nelson submitted in a signed and sworn affidavit for Judge Leo to consider in response to the serious allegations against him:
16. Regarding his claim that the indictment should be dismissed or the Special District Attorney removed, defendant references an e-mail conversation with Mr. Reich, which merely sought interpretation of decisions posed in a hypothetical setting. This had no effect on the Grand Jury, was not presented to the Grand Jury during the presentation. Defendant's claim does not rise to an unauthorized practice of law. The practice of law it embraces the preparation of pleadings and other papers incident to actions and special proceedings and the management of such actions and proceedings on behalf of clients before judges and courts, and in addition conveyancing, the preparation of legal instruments of all kinds, and in general all advice to clients and all action taken for them in matters connected with the law. Thornton on Attorneys at Law, in section 69, defines the practice of law in the same terms. An e-mail communication from an attorney asking a former attorney regarding a question about the meaning of a case cannot be deemed the practice of law and there is no client who Mr. Reich was representing.
Eric Nelson Lie #1: It’s Not Luthmann’s Case
The Nelson-Reich email was clearly referencing Luthmann’s case. There is only one case in the history of the State of New York that has these facts.
This wasn’t a high school moot court competition. This was a real-life pending case. And Nelson and Reich both knew it.
In April 2020, Frank Donnelly of the Staten Island Advance wrote that Luthmann’s case was the “first of its kind”:
“In November 2018, Luthmann was arraigned on a 17-count indictment accusing him of multiple felony charges of falsifying business records and identity theft. The charges stemmed from his alleged activities on Facebook.
It was believed the be the first case of its kind in New York.
He was also charged with criminal impersonation, election law violations, stalking and falsely reporting an incident to the NYPD.”
The Nelson-Reich email was produced as part of Nelson’s required disclosure to Luthmann’s Brooklyn lawyers, Arthur Aidala and Mario Romano.
By Nelson’s prior inclusion of the email in the discovery documents, there is no question it is part of Luthmann’s case.
Nelson’s email to Reich was about Luthmann’s case. If there is any question, Judge Leo should ask Nelson to bring to the Court’s attention another case in the history of the State of New York (or anywhere else for that matter) with any semblance of the facts he and his “legal advisor” Reich discussed.
Eric Nelson Lie #2: It’s a “Hypothetical” Conversation with a “Former Attorney,” So It’s Not Advice.
The Nelson-Reich email was sent in the middle of the Luthmann grand jury proceedings, which took place in August 2018.
Nelson’s question wasn’t about a “hypothetical case.” Nelson asked Reich whether he had to explain the First Amendment, saying, “Do I need to explain the law to the [Grand Jury]?”
Why did Nelson need to ask Perry Reich what to do? Because Nelson didn’t know what to do himself. He was and is an incompetent Special Prosecutor. Before the Luthmann case, Nelson eeked a living collecting back child support from the shed that he hopes one day is named in his honor.
Nelson’s appointment as Special Prosecutor was a feeding trough for him. He had carte blanche with one proviso:
Get Luthmann. Get him at all costs.
Nelson further claims Reich is a “former attorney,” not caring to distinguish between permitted legal opinion with retired or non-practicing lawyers and prohibited legal opinion with disbarred attorneys.
Nelson’s communications with the People’s legal advisor, Perry Reich, were prohibited legal opinion. Why? Because the New York State Supreme Court Appellate Division ORDERED it so in Perry Reich’s disbarment:
ORDERED that respondent is commanded to desist and refrain from the practice of law in any form, either as principal or as agent, clerk or employee of another; respondent is forbidden to appear as an attorney or counselor-at-law before any court, judge, justice, board, commission or other public authority, or to give to another an opinion as to the law or its application, or any advice with relation thereto. . (Matter of Reich, 25 AD3d 1063 [3d Dept 2006]).
This Order of the Appellate Division should have been no surprise to Nelson. He knew Perry Reich was disbarred.
Eric Nelson Lie #3: I Broke No Rules.
The Appellate Division has Court Rules regulating the conduct of disbarred attorneys (see 22 NYCRR 806.9). These rules do not apply to “former attorneys,” only “disbarred attorneys.”
If Nelson was seeking advice from Reich (which he was), not only did he engage in the unauthorized practice of law (which he did), but he was also violating an Order of the Appellate Division and multiple of that Court’s rules.
Perry Reich is not a “former attorney.”He didn’t retire or become an investment banker or a soccer team owner. Perry Reich is a disbarred attorney whose conduct is regulated by Appellate Division Rules.
Eric Nelson is not a mere attorney in this instance. Nelson is a Special Prosecutor, the People’srepresentative. Eric Nelson committed all these crimes as a representative of the People of the State of New York and a Special Richmond County District Attorney.
VERDICT: Eric Nelson Should Be Dismissed as a Prosecutor, Investigated, Prosecuted, and Disbarred
Prosecutors can do a great many things. They have loads of power. One thing they cannot do is commit crimes to obtain convictions.
Eric Nelson is the poster boy for everything wrong with American Justice. He knowingly disregarded the Appellate Division’s Orders, Rules, and rulings. And he lies right to Judge Leo’s face in open court and sworn papers.
He must be held accountable so that public confidence in the system, which is already waning, is restored.
When a public official behaves with such casual disregard for his constitutional obligations and the rights of the accused, it erodes the public’s trust in our justice system, and chips away at the foundational premises of the rule of law. When such transgressions are acknowledged yet forgiven by the courts, we endorse and invite their repetition. United States v. Olsen, 2013 WL 6487376 (9th Cir. 2013). Dissent by Chief Judge Alex Kozinski.
The misconduct in question is more than the outgrowth of a misguided prosecutorial culture that turns its back on wrongdoing, fostering a philosophy of “win at all costs,” irrespective of the damage it does to public faith in the fairness of our criminal justice system.
Eric Nelson’s transgressions are knowing, intentional, and criminal.
As Judge Alex Kozinski said: “Only judges can put a stop to it.”
Luthmann’s case should be thrown out of court. Or, at the very least, Luthmann should be able to take his case to trial and cross-examine all his “friends.”
Much More to Come
In this article, I only talked about a singular strand of the criminality and corruption incident to the Fake Facebook case. Luthmann’s indictment, prosecution, and conviction must be thrown out on many different levels, and I intend to discuss all of them in the upcoming days.
The coverage will focus on many figures and institutions. There will be claims of criminality and criminal conspiracy. There will be payoffs and quid pro quos. There will be good guys and bad guys. There will be professional women, creatures of the night, and even the Lady of the Dark.
Maybe we will talk about you? I definitely plan to talk about these people and groups and their exposure (legal, political, and otherwise). And some people, I even plan to say nice things about:
Judge Ronald Castorina, Jr.
Joseph Borelli
Sean O’Sullivan, Esq.
NYS Office of Court Administration
NYC Board of Elections
NYC Board of Elections Designee and NYC Councilwoman of the North Shore Emeritus Debi Rose
Kamillah Hanks
Kevin Barry Love
Diane J. Savino, Fixer/Special Assistant to NYC Mayor Eric Adams
Michael Ryan, Former NYC BOE Executive Director
Scott Levenson, Political Consultant/Hack
Richmond County District Attorney Michael E. McMahon
Ashleigh Owens
John P. Gulino, Former SI Dems Leader
Stuart Brenker, Tanning Aficionado
Janine Materna, Bitter Woman
Big Sexy Man Larry Gilder
Frank Morano
Curtis Sliwa
Judge Judy McMahon
John Tobacco
And many more…
They wanted Luthmann gone, and so they sent him away. For four years, he trained in “Gladiator School.” He counted the knife marks on his back and correlated them with every man and woman deliverer.
Now he has returned with the First Amendment as his shield and the Truth as his Warhammer.
This is the point in the article where the guilty soil themselves if they haven’t already.
Stay tuned for Part 2.
Richard Luthmann is a writer, commentator, satirist, and investigative journalist with degrees from Columbia University and the University of Miami. Once a fixture in New York City and State politics, Luthmann is a recovering attorney who lives in Southwest Florida and a proud member of the National Writers Union.
“I am a journalist who writes about justice, the courts, government officials, prisons, and reform. You find some questionable players in all these places and often outright crooks. Exposing these bottom feeders from the outside is sometimes the only way to make them pay the price for their injustice and misdeeds.”
“I use satire and opinion to make my point. I have already been told to ‘stop writing about the Government’ by the U.S. Government, so I must be doing something right.”
“If you’re a victim of the system, maybe the press is the right forum for you. If you have experienced injustice and are tired of dropping tens of thousands of dollars without results, maybe it’s time to try the digital pen.”
Contact Richard Luthmann at 239-631-5957 or richard.luthmann@protonmail.com.
"Nihil est incertius vulgo, nihil obscurius voluntate hominum, nihil fallacius ratione tota comitiorum.” (Nothing is more unpredictable than the mob, more obscure than public opinion, and more deceptive than the whole political system.)
~ Marcus Tullius Cicero
The news media is a critical check on the powerful, serving as a watchdog to hold elected officials and other public figures accountable for their actions. The media was first called the fourth estate in 1821 by Edmund Burke, who wanted to point out the power of the press. The press plays a crucial role in providing citizens with access to information about what is happening in government and by shining a light on corruption, abuse of power, and other forms of wrongdoing.
Nelson is so rude to the jurors. Intimidation tactics