An Unorthodox Wake

NOVEMBER 16--An imprisoned defendant charged with facilitating the murder of two men on behalf of a drug kingpin was allowed last month to pay his last respects to his dead father in the sally port of a New York courthouse after a federal judge ordered the unorthodox viewing.

In mid-October, Judge Fredric Block allowed Emanuel Mosley to view his father's body after a hearse carrying the remains of Ivory Gouan pulled into a secured area at the rear of the Brooklyn courthouse. Mosley was transported from a Queens lockup to the courthouse by the U.S. Marshals Service, who monitored the brief outdoor viewing. As part of the security arrangement, a marshals's spokesman told TSG, a discreet wanding of the casket with a handheld magnetometer would have occurred.

Block's handwritten order appears at the bottom of a letter (a copy of which you'll find here) from defense lawyer Paul Brenner, who originally sought permission for Mosley to attend his father's wake at a Manhattan funeral parlor. Mosley is being held without bail in advance of his trial for allegedly arranging the murders of two foes of Kenneth McGriff, a convicted New York druglord. McGriff, who is being tried separately, faces a possible death sentence if convicted of murder, racketeering, drug, and kidnapping charges. (1 page)