United States v. Ray
Opinion
Austin Ray appeals his jury convictions for one count of conspiracy to defraud the United States, five counts of aiding in the preparation of a false tax return, and two counts of submitting a false tax return. In challenging his convictions, Ray first asserts that the government violated the Interstate Agreement on Detainers Act (IAD) of 1970, 18 U.S.C. app. 2 § 2. But because the government never lodged a detainer against Ray, the IAD didn't apply and the district court didn't err in denying Ray's motion to dismiss on this ground. Next, Ray alleges that the government engaged in vindictive prosecution. Yet Ray establishes neither actual nor presumptive vindictiveness, so this argument also fails. So too does his assertion that the district court violated his rights under the Speedy Trial Act (STA) of 1974,
Background
In March 2006, Ray and his wife opened a tax-preparation firm, Cheapertaxes LLC. To expand their business, Ray and his wife relied on word-of-mouth referrals from clients who received large tax refunds.
*857 Over the next four years, they greatly exaggerated their clients' itemized deductions, including Schedule A deductions like job expenses and charitable contributions, so that their clients would receive larger tax refunds. Thus, Ray and his wife knowingly prepared and submitted many false tax returns to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS).
In April 2014-while Ray was living in a residential facility and participating in Colorado's community-corrections program as the result of unrelated offenses-the government arrested him on the federal tax-fraud charges central to this appeal. The government also charged Ray's wife with tax fraud. She pleaded guilty, but Ray rejected the government's plea offer. He represented himself at trial, and the jury convicted him on all counts. The district court imposed a 120-month sentence. Ray appeals, raising five issues.
Analysis
I. The Interstate Agreement on Detainers Act
Ray first argues that the government violated the IAD when it twice transported him to and from Colorado before his federal trial concluded. The district court denied Ray's motion to dismiss based on the IAD. It found that the IAD didn't apply because the government never lodged a detainer against Ray with Colorado to begin with, and therefore the government could not have violated it. "We review a decision on a motion to dismiss under the IAD for abuse of discretion. As always, any legal questions implicated by that conclusion are reviewed de novo and any factual findings for clear error."
United States v. Gouse
,
No one disputes that once a "[r]eceiving [s]tate" lodges a detainer for a prisoner who is in the custody of a "[s]ending [s]tate," the IAD governs the transfer of that prisoner. 1 § 2, Art. II. Instead, the parties disagree about (1) what constitutes a detainer and (2) whether the government in this case ever lodged a detainer with Colorado.
Generally speaking, a detainer is "a legal order that requires a [s]tate in which an individual is currently imprisoned to hold that individual when he has finished serving his sentence so that he may be tried by a different [s]tate for a different crime."
Alabama v. Bozeman
,
Ray asserts the district court erred in ruling that the federal government never lodged a detainer for him with Colorado. First, he maintains that all arrests constitute detainers under the IAD. In support, Ray points out that (1) the IAD fails to define detainer and (2) an arrest fits within the definitions that other sources, including Black's Law Dictionary, provide for that term.
It's true that the IAD doesn't define detainer. But we need not speculate about whether an arrest can arguably fit
*858
within general legal definitions of that term. That's because we are bound by the pronouncements of the Supreme Court, and the Supreme Court has defined detainer on multiple occasions to mean something specific in the context of the IAD.
See
Bozeman
,
Next, Ray appears to broadly suggest that, by the process of elimination, his arrest must necessarily have been a detainer. According to Ray, the government can only obtain custody of a defendant who is serving a sentence in another jurisdiction via (1) a writ of habeas corpus
ad prosequendum
,
2
or (2) a detainer. And because the government indisputably didn't file a writ of habeas corpus
ad prosequendum
, Ray concludes his arrest was necessarily a detainer. Yet Ray fails to develop or provide any authority for his suggestion that one jurisdiction can obtain custody of a defendant who is serving a sentence in another jurisdiction only through (1) a writ of habeas corpus
ad prosequendum
or (2) a detainer. Thus, he's waived this argument.
See
Fed. R. App. P. 28(a)(8)(A) (stating that appellant's opening brief must contain "appellant's contentions and the reasons for them, with citations to the authorities ... on which the appellant relies");
Bronson v. Swensen
,
But our conclusion that Ray's arrest did not constitute a detainer doesn't end our inquiry. Ray alternatively contends that even if his arrest didn't constitute a detainer, the government nevertheless lodged a detainer with Colorado through other means. In support, Ray points to the following facts.
The day after Ray's federal arrest, Gary Pacheco-the parole liaison for Colorado's community-corrections program-completed a form used to explain the reasons an offender is in custody and submitted it to the Colorado Department of Corrections. On that form, Pacheco wrote that the pending federal charges rendered Ray ineligible for Colorado's community-corrections program. Further, Pacheco twice
*859
used some iteration of the words "felony detainer." First, under the "[s]pecial [i]nstructions" heading, he wrote that Ray should be "place[d] in [D]enver county jail for r[e]gress to DOC, felony detainer feds." R. vol. 2, 367. Next, he wrote that the "justification" for this action was "felony charges from [f]ederal government detainer, no longer eligible for community[-]corrections, related to tax theft."
Ray suggests that Pacheco's repeated use of the term detainer indicates that the government must have lodged a detainer with Colorado. We disagree. Pacheco completed this form based on his telephone conversation with IRS agent Arlita Moon. And Pacheco testified that Moon neither uttered the word "detainer" during the call nor instructed him to hold Ray. In fact, Pacheco admitted that using the phrase "felony detainer" on the form "was probably a bad choice of word[s] on [his] part." R. vol. 6, 1306. As such, we reject Ray's contention that the mere appearance of the word "detainer" on the form means that the government in fact lodged a detainer against Ray.
See
United States v. Reed
,
Relying on
United States v. Trammel
,
The defendant sought dismissal of the federal charges against him, arguing that the marshal's telephone call to the deputy was a detainer because (1) "it was a 'notification' to a state 'institution' that [the defendant] was 'wanted to face pending criminal charges in another jurisdiction' "; and (2) the deputy's notation in jail records constituted the filing of a detainer.
In rejecting the defendant's argument, the Seventh Circuit in
Trammel
concluded that it couldn't label the telephone call and notation a detainer "without running afoul of the Supreme Court's decision in
Mauro
."
In short, we conclude that the district court did not abuse its discretion in denying Ray's motion to dismiss based on the IAD. Because the government never *860 lodged a detainer with Colorado, the IAD didn't apply. And because the IAD didn't apply, the government could not have violated it when it transported Ray to and from Colorado.
II. Vindictive Prosecution
Ray next argues that the government's decision to add two counts to a superseding indictment-allegedly in retaliation for his refusal to enter a plea-amounts to vindictive prosecution. He argued as much below, but the district court disagreed and concluded that Ray failed to present facts demonstrating prosecutorial vindictiveness. We review this conclusion de novo.
United States v. Wall
,
Vindictive prosecution occurs when the government retaliates against a defendant for exercising his or her constitutional or statutory rights, such as the right to file an appeal or the right to present a defense.
See
Bordenkircher v. Hayes
,
Critically, courts tend to find presumptive vindictiveness only in post-trial situations, such as "when a defendant successfully attacks his first conviction and then receives a harsher sentence on retrial, or when 'the "prosecutor clearly has a considerable stake in discouraging convicted misdemeanants from appealing" ' by charging a successful appellant with a felony covering the same facts."
Here, Ray claims prosecutorial vindictiveness in the pretrial setting. Specifically, he argues that after he declined to accept a plea offer, the government retaliated against him by filing a superseding indictment that added two additional counts to the original indictment. Ray doesn't specify whether he contends these circumstances demonstrate actual or presumptive vindictiveness. But because he provides no evidence of actual vindictiveness-and because we have found none-we will assume that Ray alleges presumptive vindictiveness. In support of this allegation, Ray asserts that the government (1) could have included the two new counts in the original indictment but failed to do so, (2) declined to add those counts against his wife who, unlike Ray, agreed to enter a guilty plea, and (3) charged those counts only after Ray filed several pretrial motions and rejected a plea offer.
But these three facts, even taken together, do not establish presumptive vindictiveness. First, as noted above, Ray's allegations arise from a pretrial situation, where
*861
we've never before found presumptive vindictiveness.
See
Creighton
,
This general rule applies where, as here, a prosecutor adds counts after a defendant rejects a plea offer.
See
Goodwin
,
Because Ray fails to show a realistic likelihood of vindictiveness that gives rise to a presumption of vindictiveness, the district court did not err in denying Ray's motion to dismiss for vindictive prosecution.
III. The Speedy Trial Act
Next, Ray contends the district court violated his rights under the STA. We generally "review de novo the district court's compliance with the [STA]'s legal requirements" and review its factual findings for clear error.
United States v. Thompson
,
Under the STA, a criminal trial must commence within 70 days from the indictment's filing or the defendant's initial appearance in court, whichever date occurs later. § 3161(c)(1). But several periods of time are excluded from the 70-day requirement. For example, as relevant to Ray's arguments here, any "delay[s] resulting from any pretrial motion" don't count toward the 70 days. § 3161(h)(1)(D). Thus, the 70-day clock is tolled from the day a litigant files a pretrial motion until the day the court resolves it.
Further, and critical to this case, a defendant's pretrial motion to dismiss under the STA must include the specific STA objection that he or she raises on appeal; otherwise that objection is waived.
See
*862
United States v. Loughrin
,
Here, the crux of Ray's STA claim is that the district court misinterpreted Ray's statements at an October 26, 2015 evidentiary hearing. During the hearing, Ray stated, "[T]here is a lot of stuff, a lot of discovery that was ordered that I just never received." R. vol. 6, 1338. After the hearing, the district court issued a minute order interpreting Ray's comment as an oral motion for discovery. That characterization effectively tolled the speedy-trial clock until the district court disposed of the motion on November 19. See § 3161(h)(1)(D).
Yet Ray didn't file an objection to the minute order. Nor did he object when the district court disposed of the oral discovery motion. And in subsequent pretrial motions and hearings, Ray never addressed the minute order. Most critically, in his pretrial motion to dismiss based on the STA, he failed to challenge the district court's characterization of his statement as a discovery motion that tolled the speedy-trial clock. Nevertheless, Ray now maintains that the district court violated his rights under the STA because it incorrectly interpreted his comment at the October 26 hearing as an oral motion for discovery that tolled the speedy-trial clock. And he argues that in the absence of that allegedly erroneous interpretation, more than 70 days elapsed on his speedy-trial clock.
We conclude that Ray waived this argument by failing to make it in his pretrial motion to dismiss based on the STA. True, he raised this objection in a post-trial motion for relief, which he filed nearly six months after the district court issued the minute order and four months after the trial ended. But that doesn't change the fact that Ray didn't address the minute order in his pretrial motion to dismiss. Thus, we find this argument waived.
See
Loughrin
,
Alternatively, even if Ray had not waived this this argument, we would reject it on the merits. That's because even if we assume that the district court wrongly characterized Ray's statement as a discovery motion that tolled the speedy-trial clock, Ray's speedy-trial clock never surpassed 70 days.
Initially, in May 2014, five days elapsed on the clock before Ray's pretrial motions and the district court's ends-of-justice continuances began to toll it.
See
§ 3161(h)(1)(D), (7). But when the government filed a superseding indictment on December 2, 2014, the speedy-trial clock reset to zero, wiping out those five days.
4
Then, again due to pretrial motions
*863
and ends-of-justice continuances, no time elapsed on Ray's speedy-trial clock from the date the government filed its superseding indictment until the October 26, 2015 evidentiary hearing.
See
If we accept Ray's waived argument that he did
not
make a discovery motion at that October 26 hearing, then his speedy-trial clock started ticking on October 27. He tolled the clock again eight days later when he filed a pretrial motion for reconsideration.
See
IV. Evidence Destruction and Due Process
Ray next argues that the government violated his due-process rights when it destroyed a letter he wrote to the IRS in 2007. He further asserts that the government knew this letter was exculpatory, and that his inability to present the letter to the jury prejudiced his defense. Alternatively, he asserts that even if the letter's exculpatory value wasn't apparent at the time the government destroyed it, the evidence was potentially helpful to his defense, and the government destroyed that evidence in bad faith. The district court held that the letter wasn't exculpatory and that the government didn't destroy the letter in bad faith. We review both of these rulings for clear error.
United States v. Bohl
,
The Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment requires the government to disclose exculpatory evidence to a criminal defendant.
California v. Trombetta
,
*864 Here, Ray argues that the government violated his due-process rights when the IRS destroyed a 2007 letter in which Ray challenged the IRS' decision to suspend his ability to electronically file tax returns. Because the IRS destroyed Ray's letter pursuant to its standard destruction policy in 2011, the government was unable to produce it at Ray's 2016 trial. But the government did produce at trial a document that the IRS' Submission Processing Center sent to Ray in response to his letter. In that response, the IRS explained that it suspended Ray's electronic-filing privileges based on his failure to file IRS Form 8453. 5 The IRS eventually reinstated Ray's ability to electronically file returns in 2007.
According to Ray, his 2007 letter advised the IRS that he and his wife had done nothing wrong. Ray contends the letter's exculpatory nature was apparent in 2011 when the IRS destroyed the letter and that he couldn't obtain comparable evidence to present at trial.
See
Trombetta
,
When a tax[-]return filing service like Cheapertaxes fail[ed] to file [Form 8453] for many, many, returns, it's a red flag for fraud that triggered an investigation and suspension of electronic[-]filing privileges. After investigation of the problem, the IRS concluded that not filing the form was excused, or, perhaps the IRS agreed the returns were true and correct. This is more than speculation that the [letter] was exculpatory.
Aplt. Br. 33.
As we read Ray's argument, he appears to suggest that the letter somehow demonstrates that he couldn't have committed tax fraud. But as the government points out, the IRS' response to Ray's letter shows that Ray's letter wasn't exculpatory. That response confirms that Ray's suspension stemmed from his failure to timely file IRS Form 8453-not from the fraud leading to Ray's convictions in this case.
See
Trombetta
,
Alternatively, Ray alleges that even if the letter wasn't exculpatory, the government nevertheless violated his due-process rights because the letter was at least potentially useful to his defense and the government destroyed the letter in bad faith.
See
Youngblood
,
We consider five factors when determining whether the government destroyed or lost evidence in bad faith: (1) whether the government was on notice of the potentially exculpatory value of the evidence; (2) whether the potential exculpatory value of the evidence was based on more than mere speculation or conjecture; (3) whether the government had possession or the ability to control the disposition of the evidence at the time it learned of the potential exculpatory value; (4) whether
*865
the evidence was central to the government's case; and (5) whether there's an innocent explanation for the government's failure to preserve the evidence.
See
Bohl
,
Ray's 2007 letter possessed no exculpatory value when the government destroyed it.
See
Trombetta
,
V. Amendment of the Indictment
Ray's final claim is that the district court violated his Fifth and Sixth Amendment rights when it constructively amended count 1 of the indictment in a manner that-according to Ray-broadened the charges against him.
See
United States v. Hien Van Tieu
,
A constructive amendment occurs when there's a "possibility that the defendant was convicted of an offense other than that charged in the indictment."
United States v. Apodaca
,
The second superseding indictment included 36 criminal counts relevant to this issue. The first count charged Ray and his wife with conspiracy to defraud the United States. Counts 2 through 6 charged Ray individually with aiding and assisting in the preparation of false tax returns. And counts 7 through 36 charged Ray's wife individually with aiding and assisting in the preparation of false tax returns.
Within the first count, paragraphs 12 through 17 listed the overt acts allegedly performed in furtherance of the conspiracy. Paragraph 14 specifically incorporated the acts charged in counts 2 through 6. And paragraph 15 specifically incorporated the acts charged in counts 7 through 36. The acts incorporated in these two paragraphs appeared in a chart format under their respective counts.
At trial, when reading the indictment to the jury, the district court made a few alterations to the second superseding indictment. It replaced the name of Ray's wife with the phrase "another person," or something similar. R. vol. 6, 107. It also replaced the entirety of the text related to counts 7 through 36 (the counts against Ray's wife) with the word "omitted." Id. at 112. Then, for the first count, the district court narrowed the number of overt acts allegedly performed in furtherance of the conspiracy. Specifically, although paragraph 15 in the second superseding indictment incorporated counts 7 through 36 as overt acts, the version of the indictment *866 the district court read to the jury only included nine of those 29 overt acts. 6 In making this change, the district court removed the portion of the chart showing those nine overt acts from its original location in the second superseding indictment-as part of counts 7 through 36-and included it in paragraph 15, which set out the alleged overt acts related to count 1.
Ray argues that the altered indictment effectively alleged new overt acts by (1) excluding the name of his wife, (2) omitting the counts alleged against his wife, and (3) moving a chart illustrating the alleged overt acts to a new location in the amended indictment.
We disagree. It is common practice at trial to omit from an indictment information that's no longer relevant to the offenses-such as counts related to a codefendant who previously pleaded guilty. Thus, the district court didn't amend the indictment by substituting phrases like "another individual," R. vol. 6, 107, for Ray's wife's name,
see
United States v. Miller
,
Conclusion
Because the government never lodged a detainer with Colorado-thus rendering the IAD inapplicable-the district court did not abuse its discretion in denying Ray's motion to dismiss based on the IAD. The district court also properly rejected Ray's prosecutorial-vindictiveness argument because Ray failed to establish a presumption of vindictiveness. Further, Ray waived the specific STA claim he raises on appeal and, in any event, this claim fails on the merits. Ray's due-process claim also fails because he doesn't show that the destroyed evidence was exculpatory or that the government destroyed that evidence in bad faith. Lastly, the district court didn't constructively amend the indictment by slightly altering it before reading it to the jury. Accordingly, we affirm.
For purposes of the IAD, the receiving state is where a subsequent, untried indictment has been filed against a prisoner. § 2, Art. II(c). And the sending state is where a prisoner is currently serving a sentence.
A writ of habeas corpus
ad prosequendum
is an order issued by a federal district court requiring the state to produce a state prisoner for trial on federal criminal charges.
Mauro
,
We note that when the government arrested Ray, he wasn't incarcerated in a Colorado state prison. Instead, he was living in a residential facility and participating in Colorado's community-corrections program. But Ray doesn't argue that this aspect of his arrest has any bearing on whether his arrest constituted a detainer. Accordingly, we decline to consider that possibility.
See
United States v. Harrell
,
In a footnote in his opening brief, Ray insists that the superseding indictment didn't reset his speedy-trial clock. But arguments made in a cursory manner, such as in a footnote, are waived.
See
United States v. Hardman
,
Here, the original indictment alleged that Ray conspired to prepare false tax returns
for others
and aided and abetted in the preparation of false tax returns
for others
. The superseding indictment, however, charged Ray with preparing
his own
false tax returns. And fraudulently preparing one's own personal tax returns is legally and factually distinct from preparing fraudulent tax returns for others.
Compare
Form 8453 authorizes the direct deposit of a taxpayer's refund and requires the taxpayer and tax-preparer to attest that they reviewed and confirmed the return's accuracy.
The government selected those nine overt acts because it planned on using that subset at trial, rather than all 29 overt acts included in counts 7 through 36.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Austin RAY, Defendant-Appellant.
- Cited By
- 20 cases
- Status
- Published