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Withheld evidence would not have changed LI urologist Darius Paduch’s guilty verdict, federal prosecutors say
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Withheld evidence would not have changed LI urologist Darius Paduch’s guilty verdict, federal prosecutors say

Federal prosecutors in Manhattan have rejected convicted sex offender Dr. Darius Paduch’s second attempt to overturn his conviction, arguing that any evidence withheld from the trial would not have led to his acquittal.

A jury convicted Paduch, 57, a former Northwell Great Neck and Lake Success urologist, on May 9 of six counts of soliciting travel to engage in illegal sexual activity and five counts of inducing a minor to have sex.

Paduch, who specialized in treating a genetic fertility disorder called Klinefelter syndrome, encouraged and helped patients, some minors, to masturbate in front of him for no medical purpose, according to trial testimony. Prosecutors presented evidence of six victims, but hundreds of civil lawsuits have been filed against Northwell and Weill Cornell Medicine alleging similar sexual abuse.

Defense attorney Michael Baldassare tried twice to overturn his client’s conviction. Judge Ronnie Abrams rejected a bid in August, saying prosecutors had charged the wrong crimes.

With the Nov. 20 sentencing deadline closing, Baldassare tried again last week to overturn the jury’s verdict.

This time, the lawyer said his client was “robbed” of a fair trial because the Metropolitan Detention Center, the troubled federal prison that currently holds the former doctor, failed to provide a hard drive full of evidence before the trial.

“Dr. Paduch was robbed of the opportunity to participate in his own defense in this matter,” Baldassare wrote. The hard drive contained emails, texts and medical records from the victims and their parents, who were to testify at trial, according to all parties.

The prison, known as MDC, which houses Sean “Diddy” Combs and Samuel Bankman-Fried, has been the focus of the Justice Department’s Office of the Inspector General, which filed a scathing report on the issue of violence and maintenance in unity. .

On Monday, federal investigators searched the prison as part of an effort “designed to achieve our shared goal of maintaining a safe environment for both our employees and the incarcerated individuals housed at MDC Brooklyn,” according to Randilee Giamusso, a spokeswoman for Bureau of Prisons.

Baldassare said the dysfunction at the jail prevented his client from reviewing the information before it was brought to trial by prosecutors. If he had, the attorney argued, the disgraced urologist may have taken the stand in his defense.

“Dr. Paduch’s testimony — had he been able to fully evaluate the information on the hidden hard drive — likely would have led to an acquittal,” Baldassare wrote in his motion.

Federal prosecutor Jun Xiang did not deny that the hard drive was not turned over, but said Paduch’s lawyers did not protest that fact at the time and were aware of all the evidence before the trial began.

“The defendant cannot show how MDC’s alleged failure to provide the materials caused him any prejudice, much less the likelihood of an acquittal,” Xiang said in his filing. In fact, the evidence wouldn’t have helped him at all, he said.

“Put simply, the materials were damning evidence in a trial where the government’s case was overwhelming,” the prosecutor said.

Paduch was a resident of North Bergen, New Jersey.