United States v. Kalish, No. 08-3374-cr (2d Cir. November 24, 2010) (Newman, Winter, Lynch, CJJ) Defendant Kalish was convicted of mail and wire fraud in connection with an advance loan fee scheme. The district court ordered him to pay $ 1.2 million in restitution, and also ordered a $ 3.9 million forfeiture. On appeal, Kalish … Read more
United States v. Miller, No. 08-1152-cr (2d Cir. November 23, 2010) (Straub, Parker, Livingston, CJJ) In 1994, Michelle Miller had a son, Robbie, with her former high school boyfriend; they later married. Shortly thereafter, the marriage dissolved. A Vermont family court awarded Miller legal custody of Robbie, and gave the father visitation rights. The following … Read more
United States v. Douglas, No. 09-4955-cr (2d Cir. November 23, 2010) (Miner, Katzmann, Hall, CJJ) (per curiam) Defendant Douglas was trolling a fetish Internet chatroom, and struck up an acquaintanceship with a Vermont police officer posing as “Liz,” a thirty-eight-year-old divorced nurse with a thirteen-year-old daughter, “Anna.” Douglas tried to persuade Liz to bring Anna … Read more
United States v. Davis, No. 09-3636-cr (2d Cir. November 5, 2010) (Newman, Raggi, CJJ, Rakoff, DJ) Williams Davis was convicted, after a jury trial, of inter alia, producing child pornography, and was sentenced to 120 years’ imprisonment. This opinion address the novel issue of whether the defendant must know that the pornography will be transmitted … Read more
United States v. Rosa, No. 09-0636-cr (2d Cir. October 27, 2010) (Walker, Livingston, CJJ, Kaplan, DJ) Back in June, in a case called Julius, after finding a Fourth Amendment violation, the circuit remanded the case so that the district court could perform a cost-benefit analysis in deciding whether to apply the exclusionary rule. See Julius’ … Read more
United States v. Drachenberg, No. 09-3114-cr (2d Cir. October 2, 2010) (Kearse, Pooler, Hall, CJJ) (per curiam) The court’s latest per curiam puts to rest several recurring tax-protester argumenst. Representing himself pro se, Drachenberg argued that federal courts had no jurisdiction over him because “New York is not subject to the legislative or territorial jurisdiction … Read more
United States v. Marks, No. 08-1207-cr (2d Cir. October 19, 2010) (Leval, Hall, Livingston, CJJ) Defendant Chad Marks was convicted after a jury trial of drug trafficking offenses and two § 924(c) counts, and was sentenced to the resulting 40-year mandatory minimum. The trial came after months of plea negotiations, including an offer by the … Read more
Portolatin v. Graham, No. 07-1599-pr (2d Cir. October 18, 2010) (en banc) Earlier this year, a Second Circuit panel held that New York’s persistent felony offender (PFO) statute violated the right to a jury trial under Apprendi. See The Persistents of Apprendi, posted April 9, 2010. In this en banc opinion, authored by Judge Wesley, … Read more
This is hot off the presses – today, in a summary order, the court held that the Fair Sentencing Act is not retroactive, since it “contains no express statement that it is intended to have retroactive effect nor can we infer such intent from its language.” The case is United States v. Baldwin, No. 09-1725-cr … Read more
Well, it’s been a while, but the court has finally issued a couple of summary orders of interest. In United States v. De La Cruz, No. 09-4641-cr (2d Cir. October 21, 2010), the district court, in imposing sentence, remarked that a “Guideline sentence by definition really can’t create unwarranted sentencing disparity.” The circuit agreed with … Read more