United States v. Ramirez-Sucar, No. 06-2909-cr (2d Cir. February 20, 2008) (per curiam) Here is yet another case in which the circuit does not decide whether a district court can consider the lenient illegal-reentry sentences that are regularly imposed in “fast-track” districts as the basis for downward variance. Once again, all the court notes is … Read more
United States v. Dominguez, No. 05-7005-cr (2d Cir. February 15, 2008) (Miner, Sack, Hall, CJJ) Carol Dominguez faced 240-months in prison: a ten-year crack minimum that was doubled because of her prior conviction. The government moved for a downward departure under 5K1.1 and 18 U.S.C. § 3553(e), then asked the court to sentence her somewhere … Read more
United States v. Verkhoglyad, No. 05-4210-cr (2d Cir. February 14, 2008) (Cabranes, Raggi, CJJ, Berman, DJ) Oleg Verkhoglyad was a Russian mobster who repeatedly received lenient treatment. First, after cooperating in a 1998 extortion case, he received a 5K1.1 departure. Six months after getting out of jail, he violated his supervised release by committing a … Read more
United States v. Elfgeeh, No. 06-0638-cr (2d Cir. February 14, 2008) (Kearse, Sack, CJJ, Mills, DJ) Abad Elfgeeh, assisted by his nephew, Aref, ran a money-transfer business out of an ice cream parlor in Brooklyn that funneled money to Yemen and a host of other countries. Although the case had early on been linked to … Read more
United States v. Pepin, No. 06-1462-cr (2d Cir. February 6, 2008) (Walker, Calabresi, Sack, CJJ) Humberto Pepin is awaiting a capital trial in the Eastern District of New York, where he is charged, inter alia, with murdering two individuals who crossed him, in ways real or imagined, in the course of his drug dealing enterprise. … Read more
United States v. Brown, No. 05-5462-cr (2d Cir. January 30, 2008) (Kearse, Hall, CJJ, Rakoff, DJ) This opinion deals with a seemingly straightforward issue: whether a New York State conviction for burglary in the third degree is a “crime of violence” under Guidelines section 4B1.2(a). It turns out, however, that the issue has a complication. … Read more
United States v. Schlesinger, No. 05-03021-cr (2d Cir. January 30, 2008) (Jacobs, Parker, Wesley, CJJ) (per curiam) Schlesinger, convicted of mail and wire fraud, made a clever, but unfortunately not clever enough, argument challenging the forfeiture of the proceeds. The district court had relied on 28 U.S.C. § 2461(c) (2005), which provides that a criminal … Read more
United States v. Abad, No. 06-0338-cr (2d Cir. January 30, 2008) (Jacobs, Parker, Wesley, CJJ) (per curiam) Here, the court holds that a failure to make a claim under the Speedy Trial Act in the district court results in a waiver of the issue on appeal. Thus, an unpreserved statutory speedy trial claim cannot be … Read more
The court has not issued a published opinion in a criminal case for a while. But here is the most recent set of summary orders of interest. In United States v. Matthews, No. 04-1657-cr (2d Cir. January 29, 2008), the court vacated the application of the “street gang” enhancement in 18 U.S.C. § 521 because … Read more
Here’s another group of summary orders of interest: In United States v. Whitley, No. 05-3359-cr (2d Cir. January 15, 2008), the court accepted a “minimally sufficient” Anders brief. In United States v. Leonardo, No. 05-1791-cr (2d Cir. January 14, 2008), the court excused the defendant’s waiver of his appeal, and found that the government breached … Read more