U.S. District Judge Margo Brodie of the Eastern District of New York cited the "considerably low" number of inmates who have tested positive for COVID-19 at Brooklyn's Metropolitan Detention Center while denying an application for bond Wednesday, despite reports that testing at the MDC is not capturing the extent of the illness at the facility.

Anthony Pandrella's attorney, James Froccaro, addressed the MDC's response to coronavirus in his arguments. He submitted a copy of Homer Venters' report from an inspection of the MDC, which found numerous failures with the facility's screening procedures and provision of personal protective equipment. Venters is a doctor and the former chief medical officer of the New York City jail system, and he raised concerns that possible cases of COVID-19 are not being tracked within the facility.

Officials in charge of Brooklyn's federal lockup have acknowledged a "shortage of tests" at the facility, explaining that they had to prioritize certain inmates for testing while isolating other suspected cases at the 1,650-person facility. As of Tuesday, six inmates had tested positive, and 14 had been tested, according to a court-mandated report.

Froccaro also argued that his client has a number of health conditions that put him at risk for complications from COVID-19, including diabetes and high blood pressure.

Pandrella is accused of killing a man in Brooklyn during a 2018 robbery. Prosecutors have described him as an associate of the Gambino crime family.

Prosecutors cited the seriousness of the alleged crime and concerns about the possibility of witness tampering in arguing against Pandrella's release Wednesday. They also argued coronavirus posed a near-equal risk to Pandrella in the MDC compared to home confinement.

Brodie agreed, noting that positive COVID-19 tests among inmates at the MDC have remained low during the past month.

"Before me, there's no compelling evidence that he will be infected with COVID-19 simply because he's at the MDC," she said. "The number of inmates that have tested positive at the MDC is considerably low. MDC has many procedures in place, and these procedures appear to be working."

David Patton, executive director of the Federal Defenders of New York, declined to comment on Brodie's ruling but agreed to speak generally about COVID-19 at the MDC.

Patton said Venters' report provides a much more thorough view of conditions at the facility than the testing data.

"The positive test results are meaningless, because they're not testing people," Patton said. "You can't derive anything at all about the adequacy of their procedures from the low number of positive tests, because that number is entirely bogus."

Froccaro declined to comment.

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