A notoriously lenient Manhattan judge low-balled prosecutors’ bail requests for two alleged drug dealers busted this week with $1.1 million worth of narcotics — even though they are considered serious flight risks, law enforcement officials and sources said.
Prosecutors asked Judge Valentina Morales to set bail at $1 million cash each illegal Mexican migrant Sergio J. Betancourt Peralta, 34, and Jovanny Salas, 20, of Colorado — to ensure they would remain in Rikers until their next court date.
But Morales, 45 — who has sprung at least four allegedly violent criminals since taking the bench in 2021 — lowered the duo’s bail to $75,000 each, records show.
Both remained in jail as of Friday, online records show.
“She’s pro-criminal. She set bail, but we’re talking minute bail for someone that the DA’s were asking $1 million dollars for. That’s not small change. Clearly they know that these people can get out of jail,” a police source said of the jurist appointed by former Mayor Bill de Blasio.
A spokeswoman for city Special Narcotics Prosecutor Bridget Brennan, whose office prosecuted the case, said the office asked for what it thought was sufficient to hold the men.
“We requested an amount more than 10 times higher than the bail set by the court,” said spokeswoman Kati Cornell. “Clearly, our view of what’s adequate to ensure these individuals return to court is different from the court’s point of view.”
The two alleged dealers were arrested by the Drug Enforcement Administration’s Task Force – which includes the DEA, the NYPD and New York State Police – in a posh 27th floor pad at The Mercedes House at West 54th Street in Hell’s Kitchen on Tuesday, court documents show.
Team members entered the flat around 6 p.m. and found two vacuum sealing machines, $27,880 in cash in rubber-banded stacks, and Peralta’s Mexican passport and expired “U.S. Visa/border crossing card” along with more than 30 pounds of meth and 8 pounds of cocaine. Both men were charged with three counts of criminal possession of a controlled substance. --->READ MORE HERE
A Haitian immigrant living in a onetime Massachusetts hotel now housing asylum seekers was charged with raping a 15-year-old girl inside one of the rooms last week, according to prosecutors.
Cory Alvarez, 26, is being held without bail on a charge of aggravated rape of a child after getting busted by cops in the Boston suburb of Rockland, the Plymouth County District Attorney’s Office said.
“I am absolutely appalled by the incident that took place in Rockland,” Massachusetts state Rep. David DecCoste said in a statement to the Boston Herald last week.
“Above all, my heartfelt sympathies extend to the young girl who has reportedly been subjected to abuse,” the Republican lawmaker said. “The Commonwealth has failed this young girl.”
According to prosecutors, police were called to the former Comfort Inn hotel on Hingham Street shortly after 7 p.m. on Wednesday on a report of a sexual assault.
Inside, cops found the teen victim of the assault and transported her to South Shore Hospital.
Alvarez was charged with raping the girl and pleaded not guilty at his arraignment on Thursday, where he was ordered held without bail pending a return to court on March 22. --->READ MORE HERE
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