The mitigation pleas for convicted attorney, Oscar Selgado started today, but his medical condition was so fragile that the proceeding was adjourned until Friday. Today, two persons spoke on Selgado’s behalf: former Chief Magistrate, Sharon Fraser, who is a diabetic like Selgado and who can attest to some of the challenges that diabetics endure. The second person, Frank Selgado, is the attorney’s brother, who shared information about their humble upbringing that his brother had to work hard to become an attorney, and that he made a mistake in life. But the matter could not proceed further because Selgado experienced a fainting spell and Justice Nigel Pilgrim, adjourned it until Friday. Before the adjournment, Selgado asked for permission to speak and told the court that the prison penalized him by putting him in solitary confinement without proper ventilation for making a phone call to the courthouse last Thursday to inquire if the documents for his temporary release for his appearance in court today were made out. He said he made the call because he heard from an employee at the prison that there were no documents for his appearance in court. Selgado, fighting back tears, apologized to the court and said his purpose for making the call was not to undermine any system, but simply to ensure that the papers were prepared in order that he could be brought down to the court today. He said that his experience in the poorly ventilated cell played havoc on his already fragile health condition and that the person who was sent to examine him was a fellow prisoner who could only check his glucose level, which at the time was acutely low. The judge said he’d have the matter investigated as it pertains to how Selgado’s health condition is being treated at the facility. Following the adjournment, one of Selgado’s attorney, Arthur Saldivar told reporters that he thinks the prison was too harsh on Selgado for calling and inquiring about his release papers.
Arthur Saldivar, Attorney for Oscar Selgado
“There is always this belief that there’s special treatment and he’s not going to be treated the same way ordinary people or other persons would be treated. He is an ordinary person. There is nothing superhuman about an attorney. And he is an ordinary person with serious medical frailties and conditions. And certainly there’s no special treatment being given to him. He’s been convicted of a serious offence, we know this, and like any person would, he has to go through this process. I do believe that the prison for what he is said to have done, acted extreme, to say the least. A phone call does not warrant a trip to solitary confinement. He was not threatening anybody. He was not making himself a menace. He was simply querying as to whether or not his removal order was properly processed for him to be here today. So I am urging the prison and the prison authorities who I understand have a job to do, to at least be a little bit more reasonable and rational with all their inmates but in particular with those who have conditions like Mr. Selgado. We had the situation of Jahan Abadi not too long ago – a person, Mr. Selgado, with Mrs. Salgado’s particular medical condition, diabetes. He himself was put in solitary confinement on a number of occasions for very minor things, wound up dying in less than a year. We do not want that to repeat itself. I believe that the management at Kolby were given that privilege to manage and earn monies off inmates with a view to having conditions made better for all inmates, not to make remand time and short-term sentences a death penalty. The court may not be apprised fully and understand fully, so we are in the process of bringing a doctor to give the court the benefit of expert testimony as to what could be expected, and why it is that the facility at Kolby is not adequate for a person in Mr. Selgado’s condition.”
