Recap of My Week in NYC Covering & Attending the Luigi Mangione Hearing

I was one of 20 members of the public allowed inside the courtroom

I had quite the successful week in NYC, culminating in achieving my goal of being one of the few members of the public who actually made it inside the courtroom for the hearing. And as if that weren’t enough, another longtime dream of mine also came true: being called “depraved” by the NY Post!

I am the very short person in red hat whose face you can’t see. Dreams do come true!

Wanted to provide a quick recap of the week and hearing within 24 hours of landing back in LA, with a preview of some of the deep dives and articles to come.

First and foremost, I will answer what I know to be everyone’s most pressing question, as it is the one I received the most in my DMs: Is he as handsome in real life as he is in the photographs and videos?

Imagine that I’m placing my hands on your shoulders and looking deeply into your eyes, the fate of the world and all of humankind depending on what I’m about to tell you…take a deep breath…and hear me: He is even more handsome in person!

I know this may be difficult to believe or accept for some, but I assure you that it is the truth. To quote Jesus, “He that hath ears to hear, let him hear!” Luigi Mangione is More. Handsome. In. Person. His hair had grown longer and even more luxurious. His brows were the brows of the Roman Gods of his ancestors. He was taller than both of the guards who held each of his arms, he has to be at least 6’1’’. His jawline, 5 o’clock shadow, and lips, were out of a Caravaggio painting.

Just look at him.

Now that that’s out of the way, here is how I spent my week in NYC leading up to the Friday (2/21/25) hearing:

Sunday (2/16/25):

Flew into NYC Sunday afternoon. I stayed with my lovely friend, Anna, and her extremely accommodating husband, Avinesh. It was absolutely effing freezing, and I had not been able to find a winter coat in LA before I left, so I packed a bunch of giant sweater-poncho-shawl things and borrowed one of Anna’s winter coats. We spent Sunday night in with a deliciously warming home cooked meal, after which I was gifted the most amazing t-shirt by Anna and three of her friends.

Never have I ever felt SO SEEN in one t-shirt.

Monday (2/17/25):

This was President’s Day and a lot of places were closed or had reduced hours, so this was intended to be a “planning day” where I charted out my path for the week. My goal was to film at every location mentioned in the federal criminal complaint, focusing the most on claims that I find particularly perplexing and difficult to believe.

I also needed to buy a selfie stick because the one I ordered on Amazon sucked, breaking immediately. Do not recommend. Anna and I had a day of working at a coffee shop in Brooklyn, where I charted out each location and attempted to plot the perfect, most efficient subway route ever made! It was just so damn cold, I wanted to avoid being out in it as much as possible. The adorable coffee shop we worked from closed early at 4pm, at which time we packed it up and headed to Dekalb Market, home of the busiest Trader Joe’s on the planet and a giant Super Target where I hoped to find a replacement selfie stick.

This day was a great success for me! I felt good about my plan for the week, found a high quality, perfect selfie stick that was much better than the first one and could hold either my phone or Canon, AND I faced a long-time fear of mine of extremely busy grocery stores. Even when I lived in NYC, I never went to Trader Joe’s, it gave me too much anxiety. I’d buy food at Duane Reade before going into a Trader Joe’s. Anna, however, possesses a complete mastery of grocery shopping at this location, for which I could not have been more grateful. She got all the groceries and ingredients needed for me to make my Mother-in-Law’s crispy tacos for dinner, and was miraculously already standing in line by the time I finished buying my selfie stick at the Target.

Bestiest coffee shop work date ever.

My nightmare that I totally survived (by avoiding most of it and joining Anna when she was already in line).

Successful batch of crispy tacos.

Tuesday (2/18/25):

I planned today and Thursday as filming days, with Wednesday in between for working from home on the content that was filmed today/prepping for Thursday. I hit the streets wearing my incredible shirt that had been gifted to me on top of a long sleeve shirt, along with Anna’s winter coat. My goal for today was to get to the furthest uptown locations, which were the Central Park locations and George Washington Bridge (GWB) Bus Terminal, and that’s what I got in, so another very successful day for me. I was going to try and also fit in the hostel they claim Luigi stayed at when I was done filming at Central Park, but it was getting late and I had a dinner date with Anna and and old law school friend, Emily, at American Cut Steakhouse that I didn’t want to be late for, so I cut it and rescheduled it mentally for Thursday.

If you have heard of American Cut Steakhouse, it’s probably because it is somewhat viral for its Happy Hour special called a “NYC Happy Meal,” which consists of a Caesar salad, truffle fries, and a martini. I’m somewhat of a Caesar salad, french fry, and martini connoisseur, and have yet to ever have a better martini than the one I make. Still, you can see the appeal. I was told that it was very important we get there right at 5pm when they opened, as apparently this was a very popular spot. It was right in Tribeca, the area my law school is in. Emily was right to advise a 5pm arrival, and I was very pleased with myself for not trying to get in the hostel footage, because I definitely would’ve been super late if I had tried. A younger, dumber me, would’ve tried it.

The Caesar salad was delicious albeit extremely tiny. My suggestion to American Cut would be to serve it on smaller plates so it optically doesn’t feel like we are being given a Caesar salad for an ant. Delicious, though. My favorite Caesars include an egg, this one was perfectly soft boiled. The truffle fries were also very good, about as solid as it comes for truffle fries. My martini…the first one was not nearly filthy enough for me, the bartender that made it had not heard my comment to the other bar tender who I thought was going to make it that I wanted it to “look like disgusting pond scum water,” so, he made it as though it were for a regular person.

The other bar tender noticed my dissatisfaction with the amount of olive juice and provided me more, for which he has my eternal gratitude. Happy Hour pricing on the cocktails lasted until 7pm, so we remained at the bar ordering more drinks until 7pm hit. I got blue cheese martinis, extra filthy, which were delicious. The hostess asked to take a photo of my Luigi shirt, expressing support for him—alas I fear they photographed it after I had spilled whatever light red dipping sauce came with the truffle fries on it.

How I hit the streets and American Cut on Tuesday.

View from Oak Bridge @ W. 77th & Central Park West.

GWB Bus Terminal, outdoor area where ALL GATES are located.

Tiny but delicious Caesar, 8/10 truffle fries, 5/10 martini that became 10/10 with extra olive juice.

Wednesday (2/19/25):

Really glad this was planned as a WFH day to go through Tuesday’s footage and work on videos, because a) it was effing freezing out again with intense wind, and b) I was a little hungover from the NYC Happy Meal Happy Hour Filthy Blue Cheese Martini Extravaganza the previous night.

I don’t have any pictures from this day because I just stayed on Anna’s couch all day and put together video clips in iMovie and worked on writing voiceover scripts for them. My cousin Tim and his beautiful wife Natalya live in Brooklyn, where I was staying, and we had dinner together at a wonderful little spot near Anna called Camillo. I hadn’t seen Tim since my Dad’s funeral, and Natalya since I lived in NYC for law school, so we had such an overdue and great conversation that not a single photo was taken. The carbonara was phenomenal, served with the perfect amount of pecorino. I recommend having it with the Montepulciano.

Thursday (2/20/25):

This was officially crunch time, and I did not sleep in late like I had the day before, as I had a lot of filming to get done. Anna warned me that it was supposed to snow around 3pm today; which I sort of took in but didn’t fully process until I found myself at the Midtown Hilton around 2:50pm wondering what it was Anna had told me about 3pm…it hit me right around the moment it started snowing.

The most important locations I wanted to get in this day were the criminal courthouse and the Midtown Hilton, with the hostel on the back burner for if there was time to get to it. I needed to get to the criminal courthouse because I wanted to speak with security guards and court clerks to get an idea about what the security measures and procedures were going to be like for the hearing the next day, and to go myself to the exact floor and courtroom where it was scheduled to be held. I spent about an hour there speaking to various people, some were very helpful and some were extremely rude, but that’s fine. I pieced together as much intel as I was going to get, and headed to film at the Midtown Hilton.

I got off the train at 42nd St/Grand Central and walked from there to the Midtown Hilton, it started snowing right around the moment I exited Grand Central. At first it was very light, but it kept getting heavier and heavier as I walked to 54th and Sixth Avenue. I filmed here for about another hour and half. I considered grabbing a drink at the Hilton bar, but it looked packed with assholes, as a bar at the Midtown Hilton in NYC would be expected to be on a snowy Thursday night. I had been walking around filming inside and out for 1.5 hours, and was sure that several security guards noticed me, and didn’t want to invite any conversation with anyone at the bar, so I left.

By this time it was dark and snowing very heavily, but I was determined to get at least one shot at the hostel Luigi is claimed to have checked into with fake ID and fake name of Mark Rosario. I will be real with you, to this moment I still am not sure if I had the wrong address or I got off at the wrong subway stop or WHAT happened, but when I plotted the route it made it seem like the hostel was only a short walk from exiting the subway. In fact, when I exited and plugged in the address, it was a 30 minute walk. I got about one block from the subway station when the arctic wind hit me in the face along with snow, dripping on my glasses and making it impossible to see. I made an executive decision that the shot in front of the hostel was not worth this 30 minute walk, and ducked my ass right back into the subway from whence I came, headed to back to Anna’s in Brooklyn for the night.

Rarely have I ever been so relieved to get anywhere as I was to get through the door at Anna’s after the time I spent walking in the freezing wind and snow this day. I needed to prep myself for the hearing the next day, which I was planning on waking up at 6am for, and was already running on very little sleep. We ordered in Thai from Anna’s local place, and I did my best to prepare myself for the next day. My nerves kept me up until 3am, though, and I ended up getting only 2-2.5 hours of sleep.

NY State Criminal Court, South Entrance, 100 Centre Street.

Me under the Midtown Hilton sign.

Exact spot Brian Thompson was shot.

Friday (2/21/25):

DAY OF HEARING! I’m not going to go into great detail here because obviously, I have a much longer article forthcoming devoted entirely to the day of the hearing and the hearing itself. Let me just say, it was one of the most intense and awesome things I’ve ever done. It’s up there with climbing the Brooklyn Bridge to escape being arrested by the police during an Anti-Police Violence rally led by Dr. Cornel West after the police murder of Eric Garner in 2014.

Let’s just say for now that I got in line…extremely early. I had a feeling that the seating for the public was going to be extremely limited, and was determined to make it inside the courtroom for the hearing. By the time the doors opened at 8am, there were already over 40 people in line. Based on the December 23rd hearing, I guessed that 24 people maximum would be permitted inside from the general public. I could be wrong, but by my count, it was less than this time. I believe 20-22 were let in this time, I couldn’t tell for sure in one row if some were press.

I started out #5 in line, but the security guards split the line to enter through to metal detectors, and there was some less than scrupulous order shifting that took place when we got through the metal detectors. I ended up being around #12. I just wanted to be in the top 15 to guarantee a spot, since I guessed that was the minimum number of public they’d let inside. I made it in!!

As it turned out, I was seated at the closest possible spot to the entrance and exit, and Luigi Mangione was brought within three feet of me, directly in front of me, both as they escorted him in and out of the courtroom in shackles—Judge Carro having denied his attorney’s (Karen Friedman Agnifilo/KFA) request to remove them twice as the first orders of the hearing.

There was an extremely strict no camera or recording policy for the general public, only those from the press with pre approved press passes were allowed to take photographs & record inside the hallway, and only still photos with no recording were allowed by select press inside. Thank God, because this how we are able to have the following, most magnificent piece of photographic art I’ve ever seen:

Luigi Mangione’s feet, which wearing a pair of beautiful, brown, (surely) Italian leather loafers with no socks, shackled together in handcuffs around his ankles.

We were told in no uncertain terms by the security guards several times that if anyone from the general public was seen even checking their phones for the time, we would be escorted out of the courtroom. So, I was not going to risk that at all, I had my phone powered entirely off.

There is another article forthcoming breaking down the entire hearing, but in it the Prosecution admitted to still not having turned over the bulk of the evidence from NYPD and NY FBI, and having just turned in “redacted” search warrants and affidavits that morning just prior to the hearing. It was shocking to me to hear that Luigi’s defense attorneys had still not received even a copy, let alone the original, of the so-called “manifesto,” which his attorney referred to as a “journal.”

This is especially shocking, as KFA pointed out, because the chief of NYPD and Mayor Eric Adams have apparently sat down with HBO in some sort of documentary about the case, where they actually hired actors to read out loud from the “manifesto,” meaning some random actors have seen that evidence before Luigi’s own defense attorneys have. This just seems so incredibly idiotic, but then again, that would not be such a great deviation from how NYPD police chiefs and NYC Mayors traditionally behave.

I’ll leave it there for now and tell you everything else, including the second most shocking revelation from the hearing for me, in the next post. It was a short hearing, and when it was over, we were led out of the courtroom very quickly, out to the street where a protest rally in support of Luigi and against the healthcare industry had been taking place since 1pm. I missed the busiest part of it while I was inside for the hearing, but it was still packed when I came out.

Did some filming around the protest, met some avid supporters, and purchased a pink t-shirt featuring various shirtless photographs of Luigi (some of which I had not yet seen!) paired with cutesy hearts from a Luigi t-shirt vendor named Kimberly, who you can order shirts from by going to the link on her Instagram account: free_luigi_tees. Honestly, I wanted the St. Luigi one, which is clearly the superior option, however she didn’t have any more in stock and directed me to order it from her shop.

I saw some news outlet interviewing her, in which the reporter kept incredulously asking her if her “family was supportive of what she was doing,” which I just found absolutely hilarious.

Don’t forget to SUBSCRIBE so you don’t miss the next article, which will be my deep dive from the day of the hearing and the hearing itself, including legal analysis. I’m going to keep the first 1-2 totally free but after that some of my more labor and time intensive content will start being for paid subscribers. Take advantage of the extremely cheap paid subscription rate of $4/month with the extension of the Luigi Special below, before it goes all the way up to the normal price of $5/month!

Oh, and I got sent a video of us entering the courtroom on TikTok in which everyone who gained entrance was being referred to as a “sister wife,” which I also enjoyed very much. There were two males in the group, though, so I am offended at the exclusion of the Brother Wives on their behalf.

My outfit braving the cold, waiting in line for the hearing,

The outfit I would’ve warn if I had more tolerance for cold lolz…could not understand the photographer’s creative decision here more.

One of the many protestors with signs at the rally outside the criminal courthouse.

Luigi T-shirts on sale at rally. I ended up with the pink one, in which a truly epic, as before unseen to me thirst trap of Luigi is featured prominently in the center.