An attorney for Michael Avenatti requested a delay for a sentencing meeting with courthouse officials due to the risk of coronavirus infection.
Avenatti was slated to hold a required meeting with courthouse officials to discuss his sentencing after he was found guilty for trying to extort Nike for $25 million. His attorney, Scott Srebnick, wrote a letter to U.S. District Judge Paul Gardephe requesting the meeting, which had been scheduled for Thursday, be postponed to avoid the spread of the coronavirus in dirty New York jails.
“The jail reeks of urine. As of yesterday, Mr. Avenatti had not shaved in weeks,” Srebnick wrote, adding, “By all accounts, a prison facility poses among the highest risks of spread of infection.”
Srebnick also claimed the jail was rat-infested and noted Avenatti had been forced into cramped solitary confinement for weeks after a loaded gun was found smuggled into the jail. He said he was concerned the unsanitary conditions could lead to a coronavirus outbreak in the Metropolitan Correctional Center in Manhattan. Avenatti only showered twice in 12 days, according to Srebnick, and hand soap and sanitizers were lacking for many inmates.
Prosecutors opposed Srebnick’s request, but the judge has yet to make a decision. The jail, which also housed Jeffrey Epstein, did not return a comment about the conditions in the facility.
New York City has already been fighting the spread of the contagion as more than 60 people have been infected with the COVID-19 virus. A nearby suburb of New Rochelle has placed a mile-wide area under lockdown in an effort to prevent the illness from spreading.
Avenatti’s sentencing is scheduled for June 17. He also faces a pending trial for defrauding porn star Stormy Daniels, which is expected to begin on April 21.
