Latest news with #FriedmanAgnifilo
Yahoo
03-05-2025
- Yahoo
Luigi Mangione's Lawyers Push to Drop State Murder Charges, Arguing Double Jeopardy
Luigi Mangione's legal team has moved to dismiss charges he faces in New York state, arguing that the federal case against him means he faces double jeopardy. In a 57-page filing in New York's Supreme Court, attorney Karen Friedman Agnifilo argued that her client is facing triple proceedings as he is also subject to charges in Pennsylvania, where he was arrested five days after he allegedly murdered UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in Manhattan on December 4, 2024. 'As a result of unprecedented prosecutorial one-upmanship, Mr. Mangione now faces three simultaneous prosecutions in three different jurisdictions—one of which is seeking the death penalty, while another is seeking life imprisonment—all for one set of facts,' Friedman Agnifilo wrote in the Thursday filing. The Double Jeopardy Clause, part of the Fifth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, prohibits the government from prosecuting or punishing a person twice for the same offense. Mangione's three separate legal cases linked to Thompson's killing have 'led to a legal tug-of-war between state and federal prosecutors as they fight for who controls the fate of 26-year-old Luigi Mangione,' the filing said. Mangione, who pleaded not guilty last week to federal charges of stalking and murder, also faces charges of gun possession and forgery in Pennsylvania as well as charges of first-degree murder in furtherance of terrorism in New York state. He could face the death penalty if convicted. His lawyers have argued that New York prosecutors are 'trying to get two bites at the same apple' and that police have 'methodically and purposefully trampled his constitutional rights.' The defense attorney claims her client has been treated unjustly as officers failed to read him his Miranda Rights during his arrest in Pennsylvania. She argues evidence seized at the time should be suppressed, as he was 'surrounded by 10 police officers,' handcuffed, and a search of his backpack was carried out without a warrant. Friedman Agnifilo has previously claimed that private phone conversations between her and Mangione are being listened to. The state case against Mangione is set to resume in court on June 26, while the federal case against him is scheduled for December 5, one year after Thompson's killing. The Manhattan District Attorney's Office said it will respond to Friedman Agnifilo's arguments in a court filing.
Fox News
01-05-2025
- Fox News
New York DA's office eavesdropped on Luigi Mangione's call with defense attorney, prosecutors admit
The U.S. government denied "eavesdropping" on UnitedHealthcare CEO murder suspect Luigi Mangione's recorded jailhouse calls in a Monday court filing after his defense attorneys claimed federal officials shared his calls with the Manhattan District Attorney's Office (DANY). In the filing, prosecutors with the Southern District of New York initially said a paralegal with DANY's office "encountered" the call between Mangione and his New York-based defense attorney, Karen Friedman Agnifilo, on April 22, and "immediately stopped listening and reported the issue." In an amended Tuesday letter, however, prosecutors admitted that the paralegal listened to the whole call. "The earlier letter stated that a DANY paralegal recognized the call as an attorney-client communication and immediately stopped listening. In fact, the paralegal listened to the entire call, then subsequently informed DANY prosecutors about the identities of the people with whom the defendant spoke," federal prosecutors wrote. "DANY thereafter handled the matter as described in our previous letter. Moreover, DANY notified defense counsel of these facts in an email, dated April 22, 2025, thus, counsel was aware of this information prior to arraignment." The letters come after Friedman Agnifilo said during Mangione's Friday arraignment on April 26 that one of his jailhouse calls with her was recorded and "eavesdropped on" by a member of the DANY's team, noting that the DANY office informed her that one person listened to the call. "To be sure, no one at DANY or the Government 'eavesdropped' on the defendant on a live basis," federal prosecutors previously wrote in the Monday filing. "Rather, consistent with well-known practice in federal and state jails, many of the defendant's calls are recorded, with notice of the recording provided to him and the person on the other side of any calls." Prosecutors added that "a number of calls" between Mangione and Friedman Agnifilo "were provided by the Metropolitan Detention Center ('MDC') to the Government – and by the Government to DANY – because the defendant spoke to his counsel on a recorded and monitored jail line (not a line specially designated for attorney calls) and with counsel using a telephone number that was not identified as belonging to counsel (thus evading MDC's process for filtering attorney calls before providing them to the Government)." SIGN UP TO GET TRUE CRIME NEWSLETTER "In any event, no member of the federal prosecution team has listened to any recording of any attorney call, and the Government has segregated all recordings of these attorney calls so that they cannot be accessed further," prosecutors wrote on Monday. The government said it is "standard practice" for jail calls to be recorded through MDC's call system, Trufone network, which plays a recording whenever a defendant makes a call stating that the call is being recorded and is subject to monitoring. The government has so far received two sets of recordings in the Mangione case from MDC, which it then provided to DANY. During Mangione's April 25 arraignment, during which he pleaded not guilty to federal charges in connection with Thompson's murder, Friedman-Angifolo said her office was "just informed by the state court prosecutors that they were eavesdropping on all of Mr. Mangione's calls." "They were listening to his attorney calls and his other calls that are going on, and they said that it was inadvertent that they listened to a call between Mr. Mangione and me, who I am the lead counsel of record. And they know that, and obviously the United States knows that as well," she said. "And they said that these calls were given to them by the Southern District, and they're being recorded at MDC. … They took steps to minimize any encroachment into the attorney-client relationship and no one discussed with the one person who did listen, and that it was inadvertent." She continued: "But we would just ask that the Southern District put something in place to ensure that no calls to his legal team and among the legal team are either recorded or listened to, certainly not provided to the Manhattan DA's Office or the U.S. Attorney's Office." GET REAL-TIME UPDATES DIRECTLY ON THE TRUE CRIME HUB Mangione was indicted in the Southern District of New York on charges of stalking and murdering Thompson on Dec. 4, 2024, as well as using electronic communications, interstate travel and a firearm when he allegedly killed the healthcare insurance CEO. The suspect allegedly shot Thompson outside the Manhattan hotel where UnitedHealthcare's annual shareholder conference was being held, in an act prosecutors believe was meant to send a message to the healthcare insurance industry based on a manifesto found on the suspect when he was arrested days after Thompson's murder. If the 26-year-old is convicted of murder through the use of a firearm, Mangione could face the death penalty, as federal prosecutors have indicated in court filings.
Yahoo
22-02-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
The Moment That Showed Luigi Mangione is Bigger Than Trump
During the porn star hush money case, one or two dozen members of the public would line up in the dimly lit hallway outside the 15th-floor Manhattan courtroom for a chance to watch the proceedings. That was on days when porn star Stormy Daniels or onetime fixer Michael Cohen testified. On some days, when the only draw was Donald Trump, there were no spectators at all. But several hundred people filled the hallway outside that same courtroom Friday afternoon, hoping to see Luigi Mangione, the 26-year-old charged with killing UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson on a Midtown sidewalk two months ago. All but a few in the crowd were young and female. One of them sported a red and white scarf with the message 'Free Luigi.' Their voices combined to an excited buzz, as if they were teen fans hoping to see a pop idol. 'We're here to keep spreading Luigi's message,' a young woman said. Among them was Chelsea Manning, the ex-soldier and transgender woman who served seven years for leaking classified material. 'I'm just expressing my Sixth Amendment rights,' Manning said. The courthouse gloom then suddenly filled with cheers. A figure in a black suit had stepped off an elevator, and the crowd immediately recognized her as Karen Friedman Agnifilo, their hero's lead defense attorney. Friedman Agnifilo had spent much of her career as a prosecutor, and served as chief assistant district attorney in this same building. She had previously been deputy chief of the Sex Crimes Unit. She had also worked with the Homicide Investigation Unit, the Family Violence and Child Abuse Bureau, and the Asian Gang Unit. Neither she nor Trump's lawyers nor any other attorneys in recent memory had received such a welcome in this building. Friedman Agnifilo's shoes clicked evenly on the floor as she continued into the courtroom. She turned left toward the defense table where she would have turned right in her days as a prosecutor. The press had been admitted first, which left room at the back for only two dozen fans, three of them male. They entered silently and remained so as the big moment came. Mangione arrived on the 15th floor through the same black-tinted double doors at the end of the hallway that Trump had used. He was model handsome, and had this been a fashion shoot, you might have said he really knew how to wear those shackles and a heavy bulletproof vest over his green sweater and off-white shirt. Not that there was anything preening or strutting about him. He was simply composed under what had to be extremely stressful circumstances. The hush deepened among those who had cheered Friedman Agnifilo a few minutes before. Some continuing shouts either from the far end of the hallway or the street reached the courtroom, but those inside continued to bear silent witness. The Dec. 4, 2024, killing of Thompson as he headed for an investors' meeting shined a light on an anger against health insurers that was of surprising breadth and intensity. One thing Mangione shares with Trump is an instinct for rousing pervasive, but unexpressed, grievance into fury. People who normally decried violence of any form said they did not really believe in killing, but… Yet these supporters in the back rows, and the many who did not get into the courtroom, were generally too young to have health insurance issues. They may have older family members who were denied care, but their devotion to Mangione does not seem to arise from personal health insurance horrors. They appear to be people in need of a hero, and for them that was certainly not going to be the president who had sat in the same spot at the defense table now occupied by Mangione. Friedman Agnifilo began by asking Manhattan Supreme Court Judge Gregory Carro to order the shackles removed. She reported that he was never in chains during the many times she visited him at the Manhattan Correctional Center. 'He's a model prisoner,' she reported. 'For security reasons, I'd like him cuffed,' the judge said. The shackles stayed on, and an observer able to peer under the table noted that the ankle cuffs rested on bare skin between his light colored chinos and his brown leather loafers. There would be much online talk later that the hero wore no socks—as if that purported fashion crime were more acceptable than homicide. One purpose of the hearing was to check how the prosecution was progressing in turning over the voluminous evidence to the defense. Friedman Agnifilo told the judge that New York City Mayor Eric Adams and the NYPD chief detectives had appeared in an HBO documentary that week—'hair and makeup done'—and discussed evidentiary materials that the defense had not yet received. That included a purported manifesto that an actor had read aloud as if he were Mangione. 'It doesn't sound anything like him by the way,' Friedman Agnifilo added. At another point in the hearing, there was discussion whether Mangione should be moved to state custody. He is now being held by federal authorities, which also intend to bring charges connected to the killing. 'They're still deciding whether to seek the death penalty against Mr. Mangione,' Friedman Agnifilo said. 'That obviously is a very important matter.' The judge said he was under the impression that Mangione had consented to being lodged in the federal facility. 'When they're holding the death penalty over your head, you have no choice but to consent,' Friedman Agnifilo said. The matter went unresolved, and Mangione remained in federal custody when the time came for him to be led back out of the courtroom. The supporters in the back rows seemed profoundly sobered by the sight of this beautiful young man in trouble so deep it could end his life. Some of the people who had failed to get into the courtroom had joined a few dozen protesters in the park across from the courthouse. At least one of them, a 42-year-old man from the Bronx who would only give his first name, Church, had a health insurance grievance. 'My partner can't walk and she has waited three months for an MRI,' he said as he sat on a folding chair before a sign reading: 'Health Care Reform Now. We Are Dying.' Two trucks with 'Free Luigi' on the side had been cruising around the courthouse. One of them passed with a rendering of him as a haloed Christ on the back. But no talk was heard either in the park or up on the courthouse's 15th floor of yesterday's Wall Street Journal report that UnitedHealth Group was being investigated for raking in billions of dollars in Medicare Advantage payments for questionable diagnoses, even as it was an industry leader in denying claims. The investigation is civil, but you have to wonder why there is no criminal probe in such multi-billion-dollar cases when people not of the executive class arrested for minor theft are brought in handcuffs before a judge in the arraignment part of the courthouse. Mangione and Friedman Agnifilo are due back in court on June 26. They should by then have the material an actor read aloud on HBO, as if Mangione enjoyed no presumption of innocence.
