Set phasers to dismiss.
A Brooklyn judge vaporized a convicted fraudster’s wacky lawsuit against a federal prosecutor and his bid to subpoena an Illinois congresswoman and U.S. senator to his upcoming sentencing for a “Star Trek” themed scam.
Howard Leventhal, who pleaded guilty to defrauding investors about a tablet device modeled after the medical tricorder used by “Star Trek” character Dr. Leonard (Bones) McCoy, has been acting as his own lawyer and filing motions that seem more grounded in science fiction than law.
“You can’t get rid of your prosecutor by suing him and asking for his recusal,” Judge Brian Cogan lectured Leventhal on Monday.
“I’m not going to hold against you the fact that you don’t get it.”
The judge ominously added that suing one’s own prosecutor — Leventhal’s beef is over Assistant U.S. Attorney Winston Paes not responding to his Freedom of Information Law request — could be viewed as an act of intimidation or obstruction of justice.
Cogan also expressed exasperation with Leventhal’s submission of a 75-minute PowerPoint presentation extolling the “McCoy Home Health Tablet,” which he wants to play at his sentencing next month.
Cogan said watching the program “makes me feel like I am some kind of mark and I’m not a mark, I’m a sentencing judge.”
The judge also ruled that Rep. Tammy Duckworth and Sen. Dick Durbin (both D-Ill.), from whom Leventhal sought support for a health care app he cooked up while he was free on bail, do not have to appear in Brooklyn Federal Court, nor does Leventhal’s cellmate have to testify about what it’s like to live with him.
They can write letters to the court if they desire, Cogan said.
Leventhal sounded crushed by the judge’s ruling that his PowerPoint presentation would boldly go nowhere.
“The PowerPoint is how I express myself. OK, it’s a sales job, there’s no question about it, but characterizing it as treating you like a ‘mark,’ I don’t understand that,” he said.
Leventhal’s bail was revoked last September after the feds alleged that he had been using an alias to solicit investors for an app he was touting as “the Uber of Home Nursing.”
“Mr. Leventhal has some peculiar perspectives on the world and how he sees it,” Cogan said Monday.
When he pleaded guilty to the “Star Trek” scam, Leventhal quipped in court: “I’d like to move to Mars but the option isn’t open.”
