The two recent public corruption trials in Manhattan — of Sheldon Silver, the former State Assembly speaker, and Dean G. Skelos, the former State Senate majority leader — were notable, among other reasons, for their timing. At one point, both trials moved ahead almost in sync, in federal courthouses near each other, each drawing crowds of spectators and reporters.
Now both former politicians will be sentenced at precisely the same hour on the same day.
On Monday, Judge Kimba M. Wood of Federal District Court issued an order rescheduling Mr. Skelos’s sentencing for 10 a.m. on April 13. Another judge, Valerie E. Caproni, who presided over Mr. Silver’s trial, had already set that time and date for his sentencing. Mr. Silver, a Democrat from Manhattan, was convicted of corruption charges on Nov. 30.
A court filing shows that the new sentencing time for Mr. Skelos, a Republican from Long Island, and his son, Adam, who were convicted on corruption charges in December, came after the United States attorney’s office for the Southern District of New York wrote to Judge Wood, proposing the new date and time after saying they had consulted with the Skeloses’ lawyers.
Was there some strategic reason for the two sentencing hearings to occur at the same moment? A government official said on Monday that the timing was purely coincidental. And a federal court spokesman added: “There is no master calendar. Each judge is responsible for their own scheduling.”
Lawyers in the two cases either could not be reached for comment or declined to comment on Monday. But given the fluidity of court cases and the flurry of legal motions expected to be filed before the sentencing hearings occur, it seems quite likely that one or both of the dates will end up being moved, yet again.
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