The Court Report
By Richard Blassberg

Terrence Chalk Update: Named “Westchester Business Person Of The Year” In 2006
Defendant, Ten Months In Jail, Begins To See Some Daylight
United States Federal District Court, White Plains
Judge Stephen C. Robinson Presiding

In our July 5, 2007 issue The Court Report entitled Riding High In February, Shot Down In November, concluded with the following:

Analysis: The Guardian has learned that Defendant Terrence Chalk, who, until his arrest by the FBI, had founded and was successfully operating Compulinx, a Westchester-based computer management firm, since 1990, is, in
fact, the twin brother of Todd Chalk, an FBI agent who does not get along with him. The significance of that fact may become more apparent over time given what appears to be a concerted effort by both FBI agent John Flanagan, and the United States Attorney’s Office to keep Mr. Chalk incarcerated, and unavailable to counsel.

The July 5th Analysis developed following Terrence Chalk’s appearance on June 26th before Federal District Judge Stephen C. Robinson would appear somewhat prophetic in light of information revealed to that Court Friday afternoon September 7th. Terrence Chalk, who is charged by the United States Attorney’s Of-fice, together with his nephew Damon T. Chalk, with Conspiracy To Influence Financial Institutions By Making False Statements On Applications For Loans, Lines Of Credit, and Credit Cards, once again appeared before Judge
Robinson, accompanied by his attorney, Mayo Bartlett of White Plains.

The hearing was essentially for the purpose of informing the Court with regard to issues of discovery. At the June hearing, more than two months earlier, Assistant United States Attorney Eugene Ingoglia, lead prosecutor in
the case, had told the Court, “The Government has produced voluminous discovery. There is more than a million files on the hard-drive, forty-five thousand e-mails, thirty-five thousand other documents, and four spread sheets. We’ve produced it and given it to Defense Counsel in its entirety.”

Judge Robinson had then asked Mr. Bartlett, “Do you have a sense of how long it will take to get your arms around the discovery material?” To which Bartlett had responded, “In the form in which the material was given
to us, it is as though it were in a locked safe.” Thus was crystallized the issue that would need to be dealt with in order for the case to proceed in a timely and expeditious manner, the principle issue that the Court expected
to address at the September hearing.

The hearing opened with a statement by Mr. Ingoglia to the Court that the Government was enabled to access the hard-drive with the use of “twohundred and fifty dollars of software, and an adapter.” There then followed
a discussion of the possibility of Mr. Bartlett being able to access the harddrive in the presence of the Defendant, even while he remains incarcerated at the County Jail in Valhalla. It was noteworthy that Mr. Ingoglia was not accompanied by FBI agent Flanagan, a key figure in the investigation who had sat beside him at the prior hearing, but rather by Special Agent Mazurka.

Attorney Bartlett, apparently pleased by the prospect of being able to work with the discovery materials, even as his client remains incarcerated, however, related his concerns with regard to scheduling and privacy issues inherent in the jail environment and regulations. Having voiced his concerns to the Court, and receiving
the necessary acknowledgements and offers of assistance, Mr. Bartlett then turned to another, perhaps unexpected, matter.

Addressing the Court he declared, “There’s an investigation of Todd Chalk, Your Honor, by the Queens County District Attorney’s Office, regarding allegations by his mother of forgery and fraud in the transfer of property.” The statement, apparently duly noted by the Court, drew absolutely no response from the Prosecution.

Analysis:

It would appear that perhaps ‘the worm has begun to turn’ in this Cain and Abel scenario. Not only the failure of the Government to respond to Defense’s revelation to the Court about Todd Chalk, but also the absence of Agent Flanagan, who was apparently close to him, and a generally more pleasant and cooperative attitude than previously witnessed from the Prosecution table would tend to support such a conclusion.