State senator-turned-federal inmate John Sampson had the gall Thursday to ask a judge if he could carpool with relatives to his next court appearance — instead of being transported by bus alongside his prison peers.
“I don’t mean to impose, your honor,” a noticeably thinner Sampson said, addressing Chief Judge Dora Irizarry. “I’d have my relatives pick me up and bring me back the same day.”
“Your relatives? Pick you up?” Irizarry responded incredulously. “No, that’s not going to happen.”
The deposed Democrat, who is serving a five-year sentence for obstruction of justice and lying to the FBI, was back in court Thursday after a higher court found that Irizarry erroneously dismissed embezzlement charges against the disgraced former politician, setting the stage for the possibility of a second trial.
Yet prosecutor Alex Solomon told the court the parties are “in plea negotiations” regarding the two outstanding counts.
Sampson had been hoping to return to his digs at Federal Correctional Institution At Fairton as he awaits his return to court in November, instead of heading to Manhattan’s notorious Metropolitan Detention Center, where he said Thursday “the conditions weren’t too accommodating.”
The transportation process from the New Jersey prison takes two weeks, he noted.
But Irizarry said he’ll remain at the MDC until his next court date.
“We will resolve the entire matter very shortly,” defense attorney Joshua N. Colangelo-Bryan told reporters following the brief hearing.
Lead counsel Nathaniel Akerman said his client “seemed to be doing very well,” but declined to comment further on Sampson’s complaints regarding the MDC.
Sampson surrendered to authorities in May 2017 to begin serving his sentence.
He was convicted in 2015 after he was caught on film accepting a loan to cover public funds he’d stolen.