United States v. Hotaling, No. 09-3935-cr (2d Cir. February 28, 2011) (Newman, Hall, CJJ, Restani, JCIT) John Hotaling cropped the faces from non-pornographic pictures of minor females and morphed them onto the heads of nude adult women engaged in sexually explicit conduct, including one in which the woman was handcuffed, shackled and tied to a … Read more
As usual, sentencing issues occupy the court in its most recent pair of per curiam opinions. In Brown v. United States, No. 09-3495-pr (2d Cir. March 1, 2011) (Winter, Livingson, Lynch, CJJ) (per curiam), an appeal of the denial of a § 2255 motion, the court rejected an argument that the Sentencing Guidelines’ treatment of … Read more
United States v. Pescatore, No. 10-0520-cr (2d Cir. February 23, 2011) (Kearse, Winter, Hall, CJJ) In connection with a plea agreement that covered both a long-running chop-shop operation and an extortion scheme, Michael Pescatore agreed to accept a 132 month sentence, a $2.5 million forfeiture and “no less than $3 million” in restitution. The agreement … Read more
United States v. Skys, No. 09-5204-cr (2d Cir. February 23, 2011) (Jacobs, Kearse, Straub, CJJ) In August of 2007, Eric Skys approached Citigroup and claimed that his company, Kaiser-Himmel Corp., owned 13.4 million shares of Sprint Nextel Corp. stock, with a market value of approximately $240 million. He told Citigroup that transfer of the shares … Read more
United States v. Chowdhury, No. 09-3442-cr (2d Cir. February 22, 2011) (Cabranes, Chin, CJJ, Crotty, DJ) (per curiam) The controlled substance known as BZP, when combined with another chemical, known as TFMPP, which is not a controlled substance, is frequently sold as MDMA (ecstasy) and has a somewhat similar effect on the user. However, there … Read more
United States v. Conca, No. 09-4475-cr (2d Cir. February 15, 2011) (Miner, Straub, Livingston, CJJ) The Second Circuit has long held that a New York State youthful offender adjudication (a “y.o.”), counts as an adult conviction in the Sentencing Guidelines. In this long opinion, which covers absolutely no new ground, the court says so again. … Read more
United States v. Acoff, No. 10-285-cr (2d Cir. February 10, 2011, amended February 11, 2011) (Calabresi, Lynch, CJJ, Murtha, DJ) In this case, the defendant was convicted of a crack cocaine offense that, under the old law, carried a five-year mandatory minimum. But the district court refused to impose it. He gave the defendant fifteen … Read more
United States v. Tejada, No. 07-5289-cr (2d Cir. February 9, 2011) (Leval, Raggi, CJJ, Gleeson, CJ) The defendant here received a 120-month drug sentence and a consecutive 60-month § 924(c) sentence. On appeal, he argued that this was illegal under the court’s decisions in Williams and Whitley. And indeed it was. However, as this decision … Read more
United States v. Sabir, No. 07-1968-cr (2d Cir. February 4, 2011) (Winter, Raggi, CJJ, Dearie, DJ) Rafiq Sabir, an American doctor, was convicted of conspiring to and attempting to provide material support – in the form of his own medical services – to al Qaeda. Sabir raised a multitude of issues on appeal, including a … Read more
United States v. Greer, No. 09-4362-cr (2d Cir. February 4, 2011) (Walker, Cabranes, CJJ, Koeltl, DJ) Michael Greer was convicted of possessing a gun and its ammunition. The gun was recovered in a trash can along with the keys to a Hyundai Sonata, while the ammunition was found in the car itself. The Sonata had … Read more