Federal Defenders of New York Second Circuit Blog

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, … Read more

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 … Read more

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 … Read more

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 … Read more

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 … Read more

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 … Read more

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 … Read more

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 … Read more

RePetition

Nnebe v. United States, No. 05-5713-pr (2d Cir. July 21, 2008)Pena v. United States, No. 06-0218-pr (2d Cir. July 21, 2008) This month, the court re-issued decisions in two cases decided in June – one of which the court subsequently withdrew [see prior posts “Role of Certs” and “Withdrawal Symptoms”] – dealing with counsel’s obligation … Read more

Deceptively Simple

United States v. Finnerty, No. 07-1104-cr (2d Cir. July 18, 2008) (Jacobs, Pooler, CJJ, Restani, J) The New York Stock Exchange functions, essentially, as an auction market. Specialist firms are designated to facilitate the auction of a particular stock by processing the bids to buy and offers to sell it. Specialists also trade for their … Read more