Federal Defenders of New York Second Circuit Blog

Tuesday, August 19th, 2008

Collusion Course

United States v. Guevara-Umana, No. 07-1410-cr (2d Cir. August 15, 2008) (Leval, Calabresi, Pooler, CJJ) (per curiam)

Guevara was deported in 1999. By 2004, he was back; on February 21, 2004, he was charged with grand larceny in New York State. That same day, ICE filed an immigration detainer. On March 4, 2004, ICE filed a Record of Deportable Alien and, the next day, it served Guevara with a notice of intent to reinstate the previous deportation order.

On May 6, 2004, Guevara pled guilty in state court and, four days later, ICE confirmed that he was the same person deported in 1999. On May 21, 2004, an ICE agent wrote a memorandum to Guevara’s A-file that indicated that he had begun an investigation into whether Guevara was an illegal reentrant. This memorandum indicated that a complaint had been authorized by an AUSA.

On June 3, 2004, Guevara was sentenced …

Posted by Steve Statsinger
Categories: speedy trial, Uncategorized

Posted By Steve Statsinger
Categories: speedy trial, Uncategorized

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Ratio Days

United States v. Keller, No. 07-3330-cr (2d Cir. August 14, 2008) (Miner, Cabranes, CJJ, Berman, DJ)

This case provides an important clarification of the procedure that the court set out earlier this year in United States v. Regalado, 518 F.3d 143 (2d Cir. 2008). In that case, the court held that a remand was warranted on appeals of pre-Kimbrough crack sentencings where the defendant did not ask for a variance based on the 100-to-1 penalty ratio, because there would be no way for the circuit to know whether the district court would have imposed a different sentence if it knew that it had the discretion to do so.

Here, the district judge gave a two-level sentence reduction to match the anticipated amelioration of the crack sentencing guidelines, but did not specifically acknowledge its discretion to consider the crack-powder sentencing disparity as the basis for imposing a non-guideline sentence. The circuit …

Posted by Steve Statsinger
Categories: crack, regalado, sentencing, Uncategorized

Posted By Steve Statsinger
Categories: crack, regalado, sentencing, Uncategorized

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Monday, August 18th, 2008

Sex Post Facto

United States v. Marcus, No. 07-4005-cr (2d Cir. August 14, 2008) (Straub, Sotomayor, Wesley, CJJ) (per curiam)

Between 1999 and 2001, Glenn Marcus kept a woman, “Jodi,” as his sex slave. Having met her on the internet, he induced her to move from the Midwest to Maryland, where he set her up in an apartment. Marcus, who lived in New York, would visit Jodi there frequently and they would engaged in various sadomasochistic sex acts. Marcus would also “punish” Jodi for her disobedience, either real or perceived, often beating her severely. In January of 2000, Marcus told Jodi to move to New York, and the violent sexual behavior continued. In 2001, after subjecting Jodi to a particularly vicious beating, Marcus released her from his domination.

Marcus was charged with violating two provisions of the Trafficking Victims Protection Act (the “TVPA”) – the sex trafficking statute, 18 U.S.C. § 1591(a)(1) and …

Posted by Steve Statsinger
Categories: Uncategorized

Posted By Steve Statsinger
Categories: Uncategorized

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Uncooperative

United States v. Doe, No. 06-4124-cr (2d Cir. August 13, 2008) (Kearse, Pooler, CJJ, Cote, DJ)

Defendant John Doe, along with others, was charged with “an array” of drug and gun offenses, racketeering, robbery and two murders. He expressed an interest in trying to cooperate with the government, but the government declined. Two year later, he tried again, writing a letter to the government asking to explore the possibility of cooperating. The government again said no.

At a reverse proffer, the government revealed that it had a series of letters that Doe had written to his girlfriend; in them Doe confessed to a number of crimes and also repeatedly discussed his desire to cooperate. The government offered Doe a forty-five year plea agreement – he faced life after trial – and also told him that the government would give those letters to his co-defendants if he went to trial. A …

Posted by Steve Statsinger
Categories: guilty plea, Uncategorized, voluntariness

Posted By Steve Statsinger
Categories: guilty plea, Uncategorized, voluntariness

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Valentine’s Day Off

United States v. Valentine, No. 06-5648-cr (2d Cir. August 5, 2008) (Leval, Calabresi, CJJ, Nevas, DJ)

Federal agents intercepted a fifty kilogram drug shipment that was addressed to an apartment building in Brooklyn. They arranged for a controlled delivery, and watched from a surveillance van across the street. Valentine went to the fake FedEx truck and called over a friend. He also agreed to help offload the delivery if he got paid. He then found someone else inside the building, who tried to locate the recipient of the delivery, but ultimately no one signed for it, and the fake FedEx truck left.

Surveillance officers stayed behind, however. They saw Valentine go in and out of the building, speak to people, and go with them to a nearby vacant lot. A few minutes later, he reappeared holding a beverage and went back to the building. He also took of his sweatshirt …

Posted by Steve Statsinger
Categories: probable cause, Uncategorized

Posted By Steve Statsinger
Categories: probable cause, Uncategorized

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Scent of a Warehouse

United States v. Klump, No. 06-0339-cr (2d Cir. August 4, 2008) (McLaughlin, Sack, Livingston, CJJ)

Federal drug agents followed a fan believed to be associated with drug activity to a home depot, and then to a warehouse in Buffalo that Klump owned. The agents watched the warehouse for a while, and when Klump and another person left the building, detained them. Shortly thereafter, the agents smelled smoke from the warehouse, although they did not see any smoke or flames. They called the fire department and accompanied the firemen into the building, which, it turned out, was not on fire. Once inside, they found 300 marijuana plants and a handgun. Based on this, they obtained a search warrant and, armed with that, returned to the warehouse and found more of same.

In the district court, Klump moved to suppress the evidence on the ground that the agents’ original, warrantless entrance into …

Posted by Steve Statsinger
Categories: exigent circumstances, Uncategorized

Posted By Steve Statsinger
Categories: exigent circumstances, Uncategorized

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Wednesday, July 30th, 2008

In Search of Lost Time

United States v. Abiodun, No. 06-5335-cr (2d Cir. July 30, 2008) (Cardamone, Cabranes, Katzmann, CJJ)

Emmanuel Abiodun was one of a group of people who ran a large credit card and identity fraud scheme in which credit reports were illegally downloaded and used to obtain credit cards in the victims’ names. Abiodun himself purchased between 300 and 400 reports and, the district court found, was responsible for a loss of between $1.6 and 2.0 million.

The court also increased his offense level by six levels based on its finding that Abiodun’s conduct involved more than 250 victims. The court included in this number individuals who suffered no actual financial loss, but who spent time securing reimbursement from banks and credit card companies.

On appeal, the circuit agreed that this was appropriate. The fraud guideline defines a victim as anyone “who sustained any part of the actual loss” for which the …

Posted by Steve Statsinger
Categories: loss calculation, Uncategorized

Posted By Steve Statsinger
Categories: loss calculation, Uncategorized

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Glitter and Begay

United States v. Gray, No. 07-3636-cr (2d Cir. July 25, 2008) (Wesley, Hall, CJJ, Koeltl, DJ)

In New York, reckless endangerment in the first degree involves conduct “evincing a depraved indifference to human life” that “creates a grave risk of death to another person.” Nevertheless, under Begay v. United States, 128 S.Ct. 1581 (2008), the circuit here concludes, it is not a “crime of violence.”

Under Begay, which interpreted the Armed Career Criminal Act, 18 U.S.C. § 924(e), an offense must present a degree of risk similar to, and proscribe conduct that is similar in kind to, the offenses listed in the statute – burglary, arson, extortion and offenses involving explosives – to qualify as a “crime of violence.” For “in kind” similarity, the statute must involve conduct that is “purposeful,” “violent,” and “aggressive.”

Here, the court applied this same rubric to the definition of “crime of violence” in sentencing …

Posted by Steve Statsinger
Categories: crime of violence, Uncategorized

Posted By Steve Statsinger
Categories: crime of violence, Uncategorized

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Car Trouble

United States v. Delossantos, No. 06-4713-cr (2d Cir. July 25, 2008) (Feinberg, Miner, Parker, CJJ)

Marino Delossantos was a drug dealer, who was negotiating a deal with an undercover officer. While Delossantos was under surveillance, defendant Rodriguez was seen at the building where Delossantos lived ,and also drove him to and from various locations related to the drug deal. Rodriguez was arrested at the end of one such trip; he made statements and gave consent to search his apartment and car, where officers found drugs and other evidence. He moved to suppress the statements and evidence as the fruit of an illegal arrest, and the district court granted the motion, holding that no probable cause for the warrantless arrest of Rodriguez.

On the government’s appeal, the circuit reversed, holding that the agents had probable cause to arrest Rodriguez without a warrant, based on the available facts. A car passenger is …

Posted by Steve Statsinger
Categories: probable cause, Uncategorized

Posted By Steve Statsinger
Categories: probable cause, Uncategorized

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Sunday, July 27th, 2008

Remand Performance

United States v. Ogman, No. 06-0203-cr (2d Cir. July 24, 2008) (Sotomayor, Livingson, CJJ, Preska, DJ) (per curiam)

This published opinion replaces a summary order filed in this case back in April. [It was blogged in that month’s Summary Summary.] The case holds that, in a crack cocaine prosecution, a Regalado remand is not warranted when the defendant was sentenced as a career offender. The range that applies in such cases is the product of the career offender guideline, and not of the 100-to-1 powder to crack ratio.

…

Posted by Steve Statsinger
Categories: career offender, crack, Uncategorized

Posted By Steve Statsinger
Categories: career offender, crack, Uncategorized

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Warrant Peace

Untied States v. Waker, No. 07-4160-cr (2d Cir. July 22, 2008) (Hall, Livinston, CJJ, McMajon, DJ) (per curiam)

Here, the defendant unsuccessfully argued that various defects invalidated a search warrant.

He first cited two typographic errors – the magistrate accidentally set the execution deadline as April 30, 2004, instead of April 30, 2005, and the agent accidentally post-dated by one day facts in the supporting affidavit. But the court held that “minor errors” are not cause for invalidating a warrant. Here, the dating errors were harmless because “each document in which they occurred contained accurate information from which one could easily establish the correct dates.”

Waker also argued that the warrant’s cross-reference to the applicant’s affidavit violated the Fourth Amendment’s particularity requirement. The court again disagreed. The affidavit was attached, the language of warrant clearly incorporated it, and this is enough under the Fourth Amendment.

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