A Columbia University student who was the main target of an undercover investigation of a ring that sold drugs from the campus will be sentenced to six months in jail after pleading guilty Tuesday to selling cocaine.

The student, Harrison David, is expected to begin serving his time on Rikers Island on Aug. 30, when he is formally sentenced.

Charges are pending against four other students — Christopher Coles, Adam Klein, Jose Perez and Michael Wymbs — who were arrested with Mr. David last December; their lawyers filed motions Tuesday as part of their requests for a drug-treatment resolution that could lead to their clients’ cases being dismissed.

Mr. David, 20, was charged with the most serious crimes of the five students, who were arrested under what the authorities called Operation Ivy League.

Mr. David will most likely be expelled from Columbia as a result of the guilty plea, and his felony conviction may compromise his efforts to get into a new university, said his lawyer, Matthew D. Myers.

“He has huge regrets about it,” Mr. Myers said. “I think he is taking responsibility for it. He is not being combative. He’s not disgruntled about the results.”

After he is released from jail, Mr. David will have to serve five years’ probation.

Mr. David left the courthouse without speaking. A spokesman for Columbia declined to comment.

The city’s Office of the Special Narcotics Prosecutor, which is handling the case, initially offered Mr. David a deal of one year in prison and two years’ probation. But William Novak, an assistant district attorney, said in court that the office believed the new arrangement served the interest of justice because it meant that Mr. David would have to be under supervision for a longer period of time after his release from jail.

The top charge against Mr. David, second-degree criminal sale of a controlled substance, carried a mandatory minimum sentence of three years’ incarceration and a maximum of 10 years. Instead, he pleaded guilty to third-degree sale of a controlled substance, which does not have a mandatory minimum.

Mr. David, dressed in a dark pinstriped suit, admitted in court that he had sold cocaine last August to an undercover officer. The sale took place at Mr. David’s apartment, according to prosecutors.

Mr. Myers, Mr. David’s lawyer, said he thought the plea “was a fair resolution.”

It would have been too harsh to send Mr. David to a state prison, Mr. Myers said. Mr. David had never been incarcerated before, Mr. Myers said, adding that he was respectful and “has a very bright future.”

“You’re talking about a brilliant kid,” Mr. Myers said.

Mr. Myers said Mr. David, who studied engineering at Columbia, would apply for a certificate of relief from the judge, which would loosen some of the restrictions on him as a convicted felon, like on his right to vote.

Attorney for the defense: Matthew D. Myers

A version of this article appeared in print on July 20, 2011, on page A24 of the New York edition with the headline: Columbia Student Admits Selling Cocaine on Campus.

The 20-year-old who’d faced the most serious drug sale charges in last year’s roundup of five Columbia University students is heading to Rikers for just 3 1/2 months under a deal struck in a Manhattan courtroom today.

Harrison David, son of a Boston-area plastic surgeon, had been a third year engineering student when he and four buddies were busted on charges they sold felony-weight quantities of coke, pot and pills out of their frats and apartments.

David — charged with selling just under an ounce of cocaine to an undercover on one occasion, and four grams in a second sale, for a total of just over $1,300 — pleaded guilty in Manhattan Supreme Court to criminal sale of cocaine.

He’ll turn himself in on August 30, and will be sentenced to six months jail and five years probation under a deal struck with the citywide Office of the Special Narcotics Prosecutor.

With good behavior and factoring in the two weeks jail he’s already served, he should be released after 3 and 1/2 months, said his lawyer, Matthew Myers.

Prosecutors has last month demanded David serve a full year of state prison and two years probation.

“While it will be less incarceratory time, an addition of three years of monitoring (via probation) will be in the interest of justice,” said lead prosecutor William Novak.

David has been suspended from Columbia since his arrest in December; he expects to be expelled now that he has entered a guilty plea, Myers said.

“It’s going to be difficult,” the lawyer said of David’s prospects in finding another school that will accept a student with a felony drug conviction. “And you’re talking about a brilliant kid.

“Hopefully, someone will take a chance on him at a smaller school,” the lawyer said.

Charges remain against the other four young men; prosecutors say they would agree to no-jail deals for them providing they still plead guilty to felony drug charges.

Reposted from: The New York Post

Attorney for the defense: Matthew D. Myers

Stuart Ross, the down-on-his heels septaugenarian who brought the Surfs to the U.S. in the ’80s, was sentenced to at least two years probation today for a bizarre, $11 million extortion scheme against his son-in-law, London private equity giant David Blitzer.

Ross had pleaded guilty in August to demanding $5.5 million from Blitzer in return for having no more contact with Blitzer’s wife, who is Ross’s daughter, and another $5.5 million from Blitzer for having no more contact with Blitzer or his firm, the Blackstone Group.

Ross has tried repeatedly since then to withdraw that plea and re-assert his innocence, claiming he only admitted guilt so he could be sprung from Rikers, where he was undergoing what he termed as inadequate treatment for double pneumonia.

Ross left the courtroom today vowing to appeal Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Bonnie Wittner’s decision not to let Ross take back his plea.

“The only alternative I had was to sign the plea and I could leave immediately,” Ross said, insisting he never intentionally extorted anyone back in 2008. Ross’s lawyer, Matthew Myers, today called the threats, “alcoholic ramblings.”

Ross will undergo alcohol counseling as part of his sentence, and can’t contact the Blitzers, or his grandchildren, for at least eight years.

Until his indictment two years ago, Ross’s claim to fame was owning the North American rights to the bouncy blue Belgian cartoon creatures. The former investment made him millions — now lost, his lawyer says. He had been unable to post $200,000 bail before being sprung today.
Ross, originally of Aventura, Fla., suffers lymphonic leukemia and heart problems, said his lawyer. His co-defendant, lawyer Stuart Jackson, was acquitted this month of charges he helped in the scheme.

Read more: http://www.nypost.com/

Written by Jason Fink with Newsday

Bernie Madoff will learn today whether he will die in prison. A few victims of the disgraced Wall Street financier, who faces a maximum 150 years in prison, will get their chance to tell Judge Denny Chin of the havoc the fraudster wreaked on their lives. Some of the thousand of other victims have already written to the court pleading for a harsh sentence. “He has condemned his investors to a life of hell.” wrote Emma DeVita of Pennsylvania, who said she invested with Madoff for 20 years and is now broke.

Hundreds are expected to descend on the lower Manhattan Federal courthouse where Madoff, 71, will be sentenced. His attorney Ira Sorkin has asked for 12 years, arguing that Madoff’s life expectancy is only another 13.

Prosecutors have asked that everything Madoff owns, including the substantial assets of his wife Ruth be surrendered. The money will be used to compensate the victims. While the last statements Madoff sent to investors in November totaled $65 billion, investors believe the true losses will run $13 billion to $21 billion. One attorney who has represented white-collar criminals said he expects Madoff to help prosecutors recover some of the money he stole – as well as provide information about any co-conspirators – in exchange for a reduction in the sentence after it’s handed down.

“He has to get some benefit or else why not just have a big circus of a trial?” said lawyer Matthew Myers.

An alleged cyber-sicko accused of posing online as a co-ed to trick college women into sending him their nude photos has hired a top forensic shrink to prove he’s just a harmless nerd.

Chubby Hunter College student Elvin Chuang, 20, of Brooklyn, is trying to avoid a possible 16-month prison sentence on charges of identity theft, coercion, fraud and general larceny.

He’s hoping an examination by forensic psychologist N.G. Berill, scheduled for Monday, will convince a Manhattan judge that he isn’t really dangerous and shouldn’t be jailed at all.

Berill has consulted on numerous high-profile criminals, including serial killer Joel Rifkin, LIRR mass murderer Colin Ferguson and Abner Louima torture cop Justin Volpe.

“We’re hoping he’ll find my client is not a predator, but is more or less doing this as a college prank” said his lawyer Matthew Myers.

But Manhattan prosecutors want Chuang sent up the river, noting that he admits he succeeded in tricking and bullying some 50 women into sending him pictures.

Chuang allegedly worked his scheme by going online at the web site facebook.com while assuming the identity of a female friend of the would-be victim.

He’d plead for nudie pictures under the guise of needing them for an art project – then extort still more pictures by threatening to post the first ones online.

Source: New York Post  – Friday, September 15 2006

Attorney for the defense: Matthew D. Myers