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Thursday, August 9th, 2012

Circuit Buries The Lede

United States v. Esso, No. 11-570-cr (2d Cir. June 27, 2012) (Walker, Lynch, Droney, CJJ)

The published opinion in this case is a short and fairly unremarkable decision holding that the district court did not err in allowing the members of a deliberating jury to take the indictment – it charged conspiracy to commit wire and bank fraud and substantive bank fraud – home with them to read overnight. The judge instructed the jurors that they must not show the indictment to – or discuss it with – anyone else, or conduct any outside research, and that the indictment was not evidence. 

That said, however, the circuit strongly “question[ed] the wisdom of the practice,” and “urge[d] caution on district courts considering it.” The practice increases the chance that jurors will be exposed to outside influences in a way that the court cannot monitor and also risks overemphasizing the significance …


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Categories: indictment, Uncategorized, unwarranted disparities

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Wednesday, August 8th, 2012

An Affair To Remember

United States v. Sekhar, No. 11-4298 (2d Cir. June 26, 2012) (Jacobs, Parker, Hall, CJJ)

Defendant Skhar was convicted of Hobbs Act extortion and the interstate transmission of extortionate threats based on a particularly bizarre set of facts. He was a managing partner of a tech company into which the New York State Comptroller was considering investing state retirement funds. An earlier investment in the fund had been cleared, but never closed. That investment had been marketed by a placement agent, a process that was later banned. The current investment was not marketed by a placement agent but was “essentially the same” as the earlier one. While the Comprtroller’s General Counsel was considering the issue, he learned from the New York State Attorney General that the placement agent was under investigation; the General Counsel advised against moving forward with the deal, and that decision was then communicated to …


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Categories: extortion, property, Uncategorized

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PC World

Here are the court’s three most recent per curiams.

In United States v. Deida, No. 11-2272-cr (2d Cir. June 20, 2012) (Winter, McLaughlin, Chin, CJJ) (per curiam), the court affirmed a life sentence under the federal “three strikes” statute, 18 U.S.C. § 3559(c). The court rejected the defendant’s argument that the statute violates the principle of separation of powers, joining four other circuits. Even though the statute gives the executive branch the authority to determine the defendant’s sentence, the judiciary “does not possess exclusive control over sentencing matters.” Thus, § 3559(c) does not unconstitutionally delegate a judicial power to the executive branch. The court also rejected the argument that the defendant was entitled to a jury trial on the sentencing enhancement, adhering to the holdings of Apprendi and Almendariz-Torres that recidivism-based sentencing enhancements are not elements of the offense that need to be found by a jury.

In United

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Sunday, June 17th, 2012

How Not To Hire An Investigator

Matthews v. United States, No. 10-0611-pr (2d Cir. June 14, 2012) (Kearse, Cabranes, Straub, CJJ)

Petitioner Michael Matthews was convicted of a 2006 bank robbery and received a life sentence under the federal “three strikes” statute, 18 U.S.C. § 3559(c). After exhausting his direct appeals, he filed a 2255 motion alleging, amongst other things, ineffectiveness of his trial counsel.

Matthew’s specific claim was that his counsel was ineffective because hired a private investigator, an ex-cop named Haumann, whom he knew had a conflict of interest. Matthews alleged that when Haumann was a police officer, he had arrested and “viciously assaulted” Matthews and had also treated him “with racial disdain and insensitivity.” Matthews backed this up with a newspaper article that confirmed the facts, except for the racial allegations. Nevertheless, the district court, adopting the government’s characterization of the claim as “general” “cursory” and “vague,” denied the petition without …


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Categories: conflict of interest, ineffective assistance of counsel, Uncategorized

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Constructive Criticism

United States v. D’Amelio, No. 09-2541-cr (2d Cir. June 13, 2012) (Raggi, Hall, Chin, CJJ)

This opinion provides some helpful clarification of the confusing precedents that try to differentiate between a constructive amendment to the indictment – which, in this circuit at least, requires reversal without a showing of prejudice – and a variance.

Background

Defendant D’Amelio was convicted after a jury trial of attempted enticement of a minor – in reality an undercover police officer – for the purpose of engaging in sexual activity with her. D’Amelio’s contacts with “Mary,” took place over the Internet and on the telephone, but the “to wit” clause of the indictment alleged only that he “used a computer and the Internet,” which the circuit noted were the same thing. Over objection, however, the district court charged the jury that it could convict based on either telephonic or Internet contact because both were …


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Sunday, June 10th, 2012

Summary Summary

There has been a recent flurry of interesting summary orders. Enjoy!

United States v. Wilke, No. 11-1122-cr (2d Cir. May 31, 2012), contains an interesting discussion of the double jeopardy implications of being convicted of both tghe receipt of and the possession of the same images of child pornography. The court, which has never decided the issue, notes that there “may be substantial support for such a proposition,” and that it might even rise to the level of plain error. Here, however, there was no plain error since there was a “clear possibility” that Wilke was convicted of different conduct for each count. Interestingly, the court also rejected the government’s claim that the imposition of concurrent sentences on two such counts would undercut the prejudice prong of the plain error analysis, calling the claim “problematic.”

United States v. Pena Soltren, No. 11-256-cr (2d Cir. May 31, 2012), examines an “old-law” sentence.” …

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PC World

United States v. Gowing and Scheringer, Nos. 10-4037-cr, 11-683-cr (2d Cir. June 6, 2012) (Winter, Straub, Lynch, CJJ) (per curiam)

The court’s latest per curiam looks at 18 U.S.C. § 3147, which enhances the sentence of a person “convicted of an offense committed while on release.”

The underlying case involved a massive oil contract fraud orchestrated by Scheringer. Gowing was an attorney who represented Scheringer in a civil fraud suit, who eventually joined the fraud. Although he initially refused to invest or refer others to the scheme, he eventually helped solicit funds from victims. Both defendants had been released on bail by 2006, but continued to engage in the scheme. Calls recorded by the government in 2008 captured them speaking about obtaining more money from victims. Even after Scheringer was remanded in 2009, his prison calls reflected Gowing’s efforts to continue raising money from victims.

On appeal, Gowing challenged the …

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Sunday, June 3rd, 2012

I Second That Amendment

United States v. Decastro, No 10-3773 (2d Cir. June 1, 2012) (Jacobs, Hall, Lynch, CJJ)

In 2002, Angel Decastro moved from Florida to New York to help run his father’s dry-cleaning business. After a violent confrontation with a customer, Decastro requested a handgun license application from the NYPD. He did not submit it, however; he claimed that a desk officer told him that there was “no way” that it would be approved. Instead, he returned to Florida, where he was licensed to own a handgun, and purchased two guns. He left one in Florida and brought the other back to New York. A few years later, he moved back to Florida but left his gun with a relative in the Bronx, planning to retrieve it later. In the interim, the relative’s girlfriend turned the gun in to the police. The police traced it back to Decastro, who was charged …


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That’s What She Said

United States v. Carthen, No. 10-4817-cr (2d Cir. May 23, 2012) (Winter, McLaughlin, Cabranes, CJJ)

Defenant Tyrone Carthen appealed the government’s reliance on hearsay at his supervised release violation hearing. The circuit, finding no error, affirmed.

Carthen was charged with violating his supervised release by beating and threatening his ex-girlfriend, Marquita Cox. The matter was investigated by Carthen’s probation officer, Darcy Zavatsky, who interviewed Cox and other witnesses, and also reviewed various police and court records. At the VOSR hearing, however, the government called only Zavatsky, who was permitted to, over objection, describe what she had learned. Just before the hearing, it emerged that Cox, who had been cooperative at first, was refusing to testify because she did not want to be respnosible for sending Carthen back to jail. Just after the district court decided the case, Cox submitted a letter to the court asserting that she had …


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Categories: good cause, hearsay, supervised release, Uncategorized

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Lost In Translation

United States v. Batista, No. 10-3284-cr (2d Cir. May 17, 2012) ( Kearse, Cabranes, Sack, CJJ)

Louis Batista, a former New York City police officer, was convicted by an Eastern District jury of participating in a longstanding drug distribution ring based in Bushwick, Brooklyn.

This long opinion affirms this conviction and sentences,  as well as the sentence of one of the cooperating witnesses, and covers relatively little new ground.

However, it has a potentially interesting, if brief, discussion of an issue that does not come up very often, the district court’s handling of a matter under the Court Interpreters Act of 1978, 28 U.S.C. § 1827. At trial, a cooperating witness testified that Batista would warn his co-conspirators of imminent police activity in their area with the Spanish phrase “loco cuidate.” According to the circuit, the meaning of the phrase is ambiguous. It might mean “take care, dude,” …


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Fleeced Hampton

United States v. Litwok, No. 10-1985-cr (2d Cir. April 30, 2012) (Livingson, Lohier, CJJ, Koeltl, DJ)

An Eastern District jury convicted defendant Evelyn Litwok of one count of mail fraud, and three counts of tax evasion – for the years 1995, 1996 and 1997. The circuit found the evidence legally insufficient to support the conviction for the 1996 and 1997 tax evasions, and also found that the mail fraud and the 1995 tax evasion counts were improperly joined. The court remanded for a new trial on those counts.

Background

Litwok seems to have spent a good part of the mid-1990’s involved in financial shenanigans in and around East Hampton. The mail fraud conviction arose from her involvement in a scheme to defraud an insurance company by making false claims for property damage and related losses at her two East Hampton homes. The tax evasion charges arose from private equity …


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