United Sates v. Gravel, No. 10-1045-cr (2d Cir. June 20, 2011) (Pooler, Wesley, Chin, CJJ) (per curiam) The court’s latest per curiam looks at the firearm guideline’s six-level enhancement for “machineguns.” See U.S.S.G. § 2K2.1(a)(5). The defendant’s gun was a Colt machinegun, initially designed to fire automatically, but had been retrofitted to fire only semi-automatically. … Read more
United States v. Gupta, No. 09-4738-cr (2d Cir. June 17, 2011) (Walker, Parker, Hall, CJJ) Anyone who has ever selected a jury in the Southern District knows that the typical voir dire there is a perfunctory affair indeed: a few questions about potential bias, a few about household composition, then you exercise your challenges and … Read more
United States v. O’Connor, No. 08-5968-cr (2d Cir. June 16, 2011) (Kearse, Pooler, Hall, CJJ) Linda O’Connor began sexually abusing her daughter, S.O., when S.O. was ten years old. O’Connor also allowed her friend – he was also her occasional financial benefactor and sex partner – George Lang, to do so; O’Connor even sometimes joined … Read more
United States v. Tzolov, No. 10-562-cr (2d Cir. June 15, 2011) (Feinberg, Parker, Wesley, CJJ) Eric Butler, the appellant here, was one of the conspirators in a securities fraud scheme arising from the failure of the auction rate securities market. The scheme operated largely out of an office in Manhattan, but Butler was prosecuted in … Read more
Here are two per curiams in white collar cases, decided on the same day. First, in United States v. Lauerson, No. 09-0255-cr (2d Cir. June 7, 2011) (McLaughlin, Pooler, Sack, CJJ) (per curiam), the circuit agreed that the district court lacked the authority to waive the delinquency and default penalties arising from the defendant’s falling … Read more
United States v. Figueroa, No. 10-2050-cr (2d Cir. May 16, 2011) (Miner, Cabranes, Straub, CJJ) Several months ago, in a per curiam, the court held that it was not error for a district court to treat the combination of BZP and TFMPP, which is commonly sold on the street as ecstasy, but for which there … Read more
United States v. Spencer, No. 10-1869-cr (2d Cir. May 20, 2011) (Parker, Pooler, Lohier, CJJ) Joseph Spencer left much to be desired as a supervised-releasee. He was originally sentenced to time served and three years’ supervised release for bank fraud, then, after a hearing, the district court found that he, in essence, committed the same … Read more
United States v. Perisco, No. 08-5266-cr (2d Cir. May 3, 2011) (Jacobs, Kearase, Leval, CJJ) Defendants Perisco and DeRoss, former high-ranking members of the Colombo crime family, were convicted of murder-in-aid-of racketeering and related offenses in connection with the murder of one William Cutolo, in connection with an intra-family power struggle. In this long opinion, … Read more
United States v. Cedeno, No. 09-1857-cr (2d Cir. May 2, 2011) (Jacobs, Calabresi and Chin, CJJ) In 1990, the Appellate Division specifically found that a New York City detective lied at a suppression hearing, by “patently tailor[ing]” his testimony to avoid suppression. Here, the circuit held that it was error for the district court to … Read more
Another crop of three: In United States v. Reed, No. 09-2093-cr (2d Cir. May 5, 2011), the court vacated special conditions of supervised release requiring the defendant to participate in drug and alcohol treatment. He committed the offense of conviction while in prison, without access to drugs or alcohol, and there was no evidence that … Read more