⚖ Oral Arguments, with Context

The Second Circuit hears the appeals of Starlin Nunez and Anthony Ellison. Both were inmates at the Metropolitan Correctional Center, a federal jail in Manhattan. Prosecutors charged a scheme in which inmates paid bribes through people outside the jail, and correctional officers brought in phones, drugs, and other contraband. Contraband was then sold inside the jail. A jury convicted Nunez and Ellison of bribery-related honest-services fraud conspiracy and prison-contraband conspiracy. They are now challenging those convictions. One term you will hear is entrapment by estoppel. It can protect someone who commits an otherwise criminal act in reasonable, good-faith reliance on a government official’s apparent authorization. A private belief that the government approves is not enough; there must be a government assurance or inducement on which the person reasonably relies.

United States v. Nunez and Ellison (No. 25-48 & 25-1579) — U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, argued October 7, 2026.