Judge Block consented, but said he would use an empty courtroom instead of his chambers so that the defendants would not be in close quarters with the jurors, something the judge said they might find intimidating.

The interview was closed to press.

The judge then decided to speak to the jurors publicly.

“When I walk by the jury room, sometimes I hear loud voices,” Judge Block said to the jurors, adding that they need to “cool it” in terms of their volume.

Outside, Mr. Espada has been as loud as he wants to be.  

Although not allowed in the courtroom, camera crews are allowed on the courthouse steps, where Mr. Espada has been regularly holding press conferences. 

Talking up a storm

Assistant U.S. Attorney Roger Burlingame asked Judge Block on May 3 to disallow Mr. Espada from holding press conferences directly in front of the Brooklyn courthouse during the trial. Judge Block ruled in favor of Mr. Espada.

“I think he’s entitled to have all the press conferences he wants,” Judge Block said, according to news reports.

Since then, Mr. Espada has stood in front of a mic stand, set up by the press, to speak about his innocence and beat up on his nemesis, Mr. Cuomo.

“The criminal activity is when people, like the governor and his commissioner of the department of health and others in the HMO industry get together and say don’t pay Soundview,” Mr. Espada said on May 2 to reporters gathered outside the courthouse.

Cash flow issues

Mr. Espada blames Mr. Cuomo, Department of Health Commissioner Nirav Shah and the HMO industry, for Soundview’s reduction in services.

On April 30, Soundview stopped seeing a majority of its patients. The center is still seeing podiatry and gastroenterology patients, as well as emergency psychiatric or dental visits, according to Ms. Fasciani.

She said the center is having cash flow issues, but the center can still pay for medical supplies and for some of its workers’ paychecks. 

“We have been paying people, it just has not been their entire paycheck,” she said.

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