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Friday, August 29th, 2008

Toll Free

United States v. Kozeny, No. 07-3107-cr (2d Cir. August 29, 2008) (Sack, Katzmann, Hall, CJJ)

In 2002 and 2003, the government believed that Frederic Bourke was involved in a scheme to bribe senior government officials in Azerbaijan in connection with the privatization of that nation’s state-run oil company. During the investigation, the government made treaty requests for assistance to Switzerland and the Netherlands. And, months later, on July 21, 2003, it applied for an order under 18 U.S.C. § 3292 tolling the statute of limitations based on those requests. By this time, however, more than five years had elapsed since some of Bourke’s offenses had been completed.

Despite this, on July 22, 2003, a district judge suspended the statute of limitations for all of the offenses under investigation. Consistent with the statute, the order provided that the suspensions would begin on the date that the treaty requests had been made, …

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Categories: statute of limitations, statutory interpretation, Uncategorized

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Sunday, August 24th, 2008

Feetotalers

United States v. Amato, No. 06-5600-cr (2d Cir. August 21, 2008) (Cardamone, Miner, Pooler, CJJ)

The defendants were the principals of a consulting firm that was purchased by EDS, a much larger company. Their compensation included an incentive plan that promised large bonuses if they helped their clients, financial services firms, avoid losses caused by escheatments. The defendants never met their goals, but devised a successful scheme to deceive EDS into believing that they had.

After a jury trial, the court sentenced both defendants to prison, then conducted a restitution hearing and concluded that they owed $12.8 million in restitution to EDS. This figure included more than $3 million in attorney and accountant fees that EDS had incurred as a result of its participation in the prosecution.

On appeal of this part of the restitution order, the circuit affirmed. It noted that the statute at issue, 18 U.S.C. § 3663A(b)(4) …

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Flight Cancellation

United States v. Mundy, No. 06-1190-cr (2d Cir. August 21, 2008) (Kearse, Leval, Cabranes, CJJ).

In this decision, the court all but eliminates the “flight as consciousness of guilt” jury instruction from Second Circuit jurisprudence.

The facts here were somewhat unusual because it was the the defendant who sought the instruction with respect to a co-defendant. The defendant was trying to bolster his argument that drugs and guns in they apartment where they were both arrested belonged to the other guy. Naturally, the government objected.

On appeal, the circuit held that district court did not err in refusing to give the instruction. But it also went on to map out the multitude of reasons why such an instruction, if objected to, should not be given, regardless of which party is seeking it.

First, there are many inferences that can be drawn from a person’s flight and, while the standard instruction …

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Categories: consciousness of guilt, jury charge, Uncategorized

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Tuesday, August 19th, 2008

Standing Alone

United States v. Hamilton, No. 06-2933-cr (2d Cir. August 15, 2008) (Leval, Sotomayor, Katzmann, CJJ)

Hamilton was convicted of participating in a marijuana conspiracy. He raised a host of issues on appeal, and prevailed on his claim that the district court erroneously concluded that he lacked standing to challenge a search.

The Fourth Amendment Issue

This investigation began in 1999, in Los Angeles, where local authorities arrested Hamilton and charged him with marijuana possession. Hamilton was released on bail, then disappeared, and later acquired a Florida driver’s license in a different name. The government later learned that the LA marijuana would make its way to the Bronx.

In 2004, L.A. police officers intercepted a FedEx package containing marijuana that was supposed to go to an address in Encino, California. They conducted a controlled delivery, and discovered five men in the driveway of the house, one of whom was Hamilton, who …

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Categories: hearsay, standing, Uncategorized

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Tamper Proof

United States v. Ventry, No. 06-3104-pr (2d Cir. August 15, 2008) (Cabranes, Wesley, CJJ, Castel, DJ).

In this appeal from the denial of a 2255 motion, the circuit faulted the district court’s finding that Ventry’s counsel did not suffer from a conflict of interest. It remanded the case for further proceedings to determine the nature of the conflict and consideration of whether Ventry was prejudiced by it.

Background

Ventry was a suspect in robbery in the Niagara Falls area. After he received a subpoena to testify before a federal grand jury, he confessed to his girlfriend, Christine Janik. When Janik was interviewed by an FBI agent, she told the agent when Ventry had said, and signed a written statement, although she later testified that she had felt pressured to make the statement. Janik then told Ventry what she had done and, that same day, broke up with him.

Ventry’s father …

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It Depends Upon What the Meaning of the Word “Is” Is

United States v. Darden, No. 06-4567-cr (2d Cir. August 15, 2008) (Cardamone, Pooler, CJJ, Keenan, DJ)

Under the Armed Career Criminal Act, 18 U.S.C. § 924(e) (“ACCA”), a felon-in-possession of a firearm or ammunition faces a fifteen-year mandatory minimum sentence (the maximum is life) if he has at least three prior convictions for felony crimes of violence and/or “serious” drug offenses. The statute defines “serious” drug offenses as those for which the maximum penalty that “is prescribed” is ten years or more.

These four consolidated appeals all arose from the application of this definition to defendants whose past convictions were for New York State Class C or Class B (first offender) drug felonies. Until 2005, the maximum penalty for such offenses was more than ten years. Effective January of 2005, the state reduced the maximum penalty for such offenseses to less than ten years, but the amelioration is not retroactive.…

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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 …

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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 …

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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 …

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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 …

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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 …

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