United States v. Hill
United States v. Hill
Opinion of the Court
Circuit Judge:
This appeal presents three questions: (1) whether it is constitutional to prosecute a wife for harboring her fugitive husband or for being an accessory after the fact to his crime; (2) whether the federal proscription against harboring a fugitive confers jurisdiction even if the harboring occurs outside the United States; and (3) whether an accessory indictment that fails to specify the principal’s crime is legally sufficient. Because we hold that the answer to the first two questions is “yes” and the answer to the third question is “no,” we affirm Patricia King Hill’s harboring conviction but reverse her accessory conviction.
I
FACTS AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY
This case arises from one man’s efforts to avoid paying more than $100,000 in past-due child support. In 1979, Charlie Hill (Charlie) divorced his wife, Victoria, in New Mexico. As part of the divorce decree, Charlie acknowledged that he was the father of two children born of the union and agreed to pay Victoria $450 per month for their support. Despite this agreement, he has made no voluntary support payments since 1979.
In November 1993, Charlie married the defendant/appellant, Patricia King Hill (Hill), an attorney and businesswoman of substantial means. The Hills lived in France and Luxembourg before settling on a ranch in Umpqua, Oregon. In 1995, just two years into their marriage, Charlie’s unpaid obligation caught up with the couple when the IRS garnished part of their joint tax refund because of Charlie’s child support arrears.
In 1997, Victoria filed suit in New Mexico to collect the child support that Charlie owed her. When Charlie failed to appear and respond to that state’s order to show cause, the court found him in contempt. In December 1997, Hill witnessed Charlie’s arrest on this contempt warrant. Indeed, Hill posted Charlie’s bail and then retained counsel to defend the suit brought by Victoria, which by then had yielded a $177,000 default judgment against Charlie.
In May 1998, two Department of Health & Human Services investigators attempted to interview Charlie at the Oregon ranch concerning his failure to pay child support. While there, the investigators informed both Charlie and Hill that the matter was now being investigated as a potential violation of federal criminal law.
Charlie fled to Mexico soon after the investigators’ visit. Before doing so, he told a ranch hand, in Hill’s presence, that he was fleeing because of the child support charges. Shortly thereafter, Hill listed her Oregon ranch for sale and began looking for similar property in Mexico. The couple located property in June, and Hill purchased it in August 1998.
Hill subsequently invested $300,000 in improving the Mexican ranch property, where Charlie lives and works. In addition, between May and December 1998, Hill wired money to Charlie in Mexico and transferred money from her personal account to the couple’s joint account so that Charlie would have something to withdraw.
On October 15, 1998, a federal judge in Oregon signed a criminal complaint charging Charlie with a misdemeanor violation
In December 1998, agents again visited Hill at her Oregon ranch, and she again refused to divulge her husband’s whereabouts. By this time, however, she had been informed that there was a misdemeanor warrant for Charlie’s arrest. Agents served Hill with a subpoena commanding her to appear before a grand jury on December 17,1998.
The night before her scheduled appearance, Hill met with Steve Kimball, one of her former ranch hands, at a local restaurant. During that meeting, Hill asked Kimball if he would drive a truck and trailer to a destination that she would name later if she and her husband paid all of his expenses. Kimball agreed.
When she appeared the next morning before the grand jury, Hill refused to answer questions, invoking both her right against self-incrimination and the privilege not to testify against one’s spouse. As soon as she finished, she flew to Chicago and then to Mexico, where she joined Charlie.
Later that same day, the grand jury indicted Charlie for felony violation of the Deadbeat Parents Punishment Act of 1998 and a felony warrant was issued for his arrest. By the time federal agents tried to notify Hill of this, however, she was gone. Accordingly, they notified four other people: Hill’s business attorney in Chicago, her criminal defense attorney in Eugene, Steven Kimball, and Vicki Powell, who looked after the house for the Hills. All were requested to inform Hill of Charlie’s felony indictment and the warrant for his arrest at their first opportunity. Vicki Powell later testified that she did so during the first or second week of 1999.
Sometime in the first few days of January 1999, Charlie contacted Kimball and told him that Hill wanted him to drive the couple’s truck, trailer, pets and belongings to the Mexican border. Hill later called her business partner in Illinois and asked him to send a $2,000 cashier’s check to Kimball in Oregon. When Kimball received the check via Federal Express on January 5, 1999, he notified the federal agents with whom he was then cooperating. A few days later, on January 11, 1999, a federal judge in Oregon signed a criminal complaint charging Hill with being an accessory after the fact, and a warrant issued for her arrest as well.
Sometime after January 5, 1999, but, according to Vicki Powell, after she had informed Hill of the felony warrant for Charlie’s arrest, Kimball embarked on his trip to Mexico.
On January 25, 1999, Hill flew from Mexico to the Cayman Islands to look into setting up a bank account that would be safe from U.S. Government forfeiture. Two days later, police arrested Hill when her return flight made a stopover in Miami. There she spent five days in jail before disclosing the address of her ranch in Mexico and being released.
After Hill waived her right to a jury trial, the district court convicted her of both of the charged counts: harboring a fugitive
As of July 21, 2000, Charlie remained at large in Mexico.
II
ANALYSIS
A. Hill’s Constitutional Challenge
Hill first argues that the harboring and accessory statutes are unconstitutional as applied to her because they criminalize conduct in which she is entitled to engage under the First and Fifth Amendments to the Constitution. Specifically, Hill alleges that the statutes impermissibly infringe upon her rights of association, marriage, privacy, and due process. We find no merit in Hill’s constitutional challenge, which we review de novo.
Courts must “examine carefully the importance of the governmental interests advanced and the extent to which they are served”
Hill’s simplistic argument assumes what it needs to prove. It is clear that the statutes in question affect important protected rights. It is not clear, however, that they do so unjustifiably. We agree with the Government that enforcement of criminal laws, including the law against assisting “deadbeat” parents after the fact, furthers compelling state interests that justify intrusion.
Stripped to its basics, Hill’s contention is that as Charlie’s second wife, she has a constitutional right to prevent his children
In Griswold v. Connecticut,
Indeed, Hill’s argument that the court should have excluded evidence that she lived with, traveled with, and associated with her husband or that she shared marital assets with her husband is quite unlike the argument the Court accepted in Griswold. Hill’s argument is tantamount to a suggestion that spouses may reheve, comfort, or assist each other in violating any and all federal criminal laws. The Supreme Court expressly rejected this proposition in United States v. Dege.
B. Harboring Conviction
In addition to her as-applied constitutional challenge, Hill assails her harboring conviction based on insufficiency of the evidence and on jurisdictional grounds. We reject these challenges as well.
1. Sufficiency of Evidence.
The harboring statute that Hill was convicted of violating, 18 U.S.C. § 1071, requires proof of four elements: “First, proof that a federal warrant had been issued for the fugitive’s arrest. Second, that the Appellant had knowledge that a warrant had been issued.... Third, that the Appellant actually harbored or concealed [the fugitive]. Finally, that Appellant intended to prevent [the fugitive’s] discovery or arrest.”
That a felony arrest warrant was issued for Charlie is beyond peradventure. When Hill found out about it is less clear. The district court found that Hill learned of Charlie’s felony indictment during the
Hill is correct that to have harbored or concealed her husband, she must have done more than give him money. Although supplying funds may make one an accessory after the fact, “[supplying ‘financial assistance’ to a fugitive does not rise to the level of harboring or concealing.”
There is evidence that Hill provided Charlie food, shelter, and other assistance after January 15, 1999. On January 20, 1999, Hill paid $1,656 to the Araiza Inn, a hotel in Hermosillo, Mexico, where she and Charlie had stayed and dined for the two previous days. While in Hermosillo, Hill rented a car so she and Charlie could get around. If Hill had done these things in Cancún, Mexico, a vacation area far from the border, it would be more difficult to characterize these actions as harboring her husband because it would be very hard to show that they were done for the purpose of preventing his discovery or arrest. But Hill chose a border town, and she chose that town for a reason. The evidence showed that Charlie and Hill went together to Hermosillo to collect their pets and belongings, which Hill had previously arranged for Kimball to drive down from Oregon. In other words, Hill provided Charlie with food and shelter in northern Mexico so that he would not have to go back to the United States to retrieve their belongings himself, and she did so after she knew there was a felony warrant for his arrest. In light of this evidence, Hill's conviction for harboring was sufficiently supported.
2. Extraterritorial Application of the Harboring Statute.
Because Hill harbored her husband in Mexico, we must decide whether the United States has extraterritorial jurisdiction to prosecute her. United States v. Felix-Gutierrez
We discern no meaningful difference between Hill’s harboring offense and the offenses of being an accessory after the fact, aiding and abetting, and conspiracy, all of which have been deemed to confer extraterritorial jurisdiction to the same extent as the offenses that underlie them.
Title 18 U.S.C. § 228 does not explicitly state that the United States has jurisdiction over anyone who violates the statute outside its borders. However, § 228(a)(2), which makes it a punishable offense to travel in interstate or foreign commerce with the intent to evade a support obligation,
International law also supports extraterritorial application of the law in this instance. International law permits extraterritorial jurisdiction under five theories: territorial, national, protective, universality, and passive personality.
Under the territorial jurisdiction theory, jurisdiction is appropriate if the acts performed outside the United States produce detrimental effects within the United States.
Extraterritorial jurisdiction is also proper under the nationality theory, which permits a country to apply its statutes to extraterritorial acts of its own nationals.
Finally, the passive personality theory, which bases jurisdiction on the nationality of the victim, sanctions extraterritorial application of the harboring statute in the
Because a plain reading of the Deadbeat Parents Punishment Act clearly suggests Congressional intent to confer extraterritorial jurisdiction and because such jurisdiction comports with international law, we hold that the United States properly prosecuted Hill in the District of Oregon for harboring her husband.
C. Accessory Indictment and Conviction
Hill argues that the indictment charging her with being an accessory after the fact is deficient as a matter of law because it did not specify the principal crime, Charlie’s alleged violation of the Deadbeat Parents Punishment Act. To support her argument, Hill relies on United States v. Innie.
In Innie, we were primarily concerned with ensuring, in a case in which a court planned to base a dramatic sentencing enhancement on a violent prior offense under the guidelines’ career offender provisions, that a jury had found beyond a reasonable doubt that violence was an element of the crime.
The Supreme Court has held that an indictment is sufficient if: (1) it contains the elements of the offense charged and fairly informs a defendant of the charge against which he must defend; and (2) it enables him to plead an acquittal or conviction in bar of future prosecutions for the same offense.
The accessory statute provides that “[w]hoever, knowing that an offense against the United States has been committed, receives, relieves, comforts or assists the offender in order to hinder or prevent his apprehension, trial or punishment, is an accessory after the fact.”
If a defendant may not be convicted of being an accessory to “a crime against the United States,” with no underlying crime specified, then she should not be able to be indicted for the same. If an element is necessary to convict, it is also necessary to indict, because elements of a crime do not change as criminal proceedings progress. Thus, we concur with the First Circuit that “an indictment charging one as an accessory after the fact must plead the underlying offense '... as well as the accessory offense.”
CONCLUSION
Because we hold that it is constitutional for the United States to prosecute Hill for harboring her husband and because there was sufficient evidence to convict her of that crime, we affirm her harboring conviction. We reverse her conviction for being an accessory after the fact because her indictment was insufficient as a matter of law.
AFFIRMED in part, REVERSED in part, and REMANDED for entry of an amended judgment.
. Although Kimball was working with federal agents, the Government cannot pinpoint the exact dates of Kimball's trip.
. See 18 U.S.C. § 1071.
. See 18 U.S.C. § 3.
. Mexico is apparently unwilling to extradite Charlie because failing to pay child support is not a criminal offense there.
. United States v. Dubose, 146 F.3d 1141, 1142 (9th Cir. 1998).
. Moore v. City of East Cleveland, 431 U.S. 494, 499, 97 S.Ct. 1932, 52 L.Ed.2d 531 (1977).
. Griswold v. Connecticut, 381 U.S. 479, 482, 85 S.Ct. 1678, 14 L.Ed.2d 510 (1965).
. Moore, 431 U.S. at 498, 97 S.Ct. 1932.
. Id. at 499, 97 S.Ct. 1932 (quoting Cleveland Bd. of Educ. v. LaFleur, 414 U.S. 632, 639, 94 S.Ct. 791, 39 L.Ed.2d 52 (1974)).
. 381 U.S. 479, 85 S.Ct. 1678, 14 L.Ed.2d 510 (1965).
. 381 U.S. at 485, 85 S.Ct. 1678 (citation and internal quotation marks omitted).
. 18 U.S.C. § 1071.
. 18 U.S.C. §3.
. 364 U.S. 51, 80 S.Ct. 1589, 4 L.Ed.2d 1563 (1960); see also Michael v. United States, 393 F.2d 22 (10th Cir. 1968) (rejecting the contention that a wife could not be prosecuted for harboring her deserter husband because of the antiquated legal fiction that husband and wife are one person).
. United States v. Yarbrough, 852 F.2d 1522, 1543 (9th Cir. 1988).
. Jackson v. Virginia, 443 U.S. 307, 319, 99 S.Ct. 2781, 61 L.Ed.2d 560 (1979).
. Yarbrough, 852 F.2d at 1543 (quoting United States v. Foy, 416 F.2d 940, 941 (7th Cir. 1969)).
. See, e.g., United States v. Shapiro, 113 F.2d 891, 892-93 (2d Cir. 1940).
. Yarbrough, 852 F.2d at 1543 (internal quotation marks and citation omitted).
. 940 F.2d 1200 (9th Cir. 1991).
. Id. at 1204.
. Id. at 1205.
. See United States v. Layton, 855 F.2d 1388, 1395 (9th Cir. 1988) (collecting cases) overruled on other grounds as recognized in Guam v. Ignacio, 10 F.3d 608, 612 n. 2 (9th Cir. 1993).
. 18 U.S.C. § 228(a)(2).
. See Felix-Gutierrez, 940 F.2d at 1205. For a discussion of all five theories, see United States v. Vasquez-Velasco, 15 F.3d 833, 840 & n. 5 (9th Cir. 1994).
. See Vasquez-Velasco, 15 F.3d at 840; Felix-Gutierrez, 940 F.2d at 1205-06; United States v. Peterson, 812 F.2d 486, 493 (9th Cir. 1987) (holding that an attempted transaction aimed at causing criminal acts within United States provides sufficient basis to exercise extraterritorial jurisdiction).
. United States v. Thomas, 893 F.2d 1066, 1069 (9th Cir. 1990).
. Vasquez-Velasco, 15 F.3d at 840 n. 5.
. 7 F.3d 840 (9th Cir. 1993).
. A defendant must have at least two prior felony convictions for crimes of violence or controlled substance offenses to be sentenced as a career offender. Id. at 849.
. Id. at 850 (citation omitted).
. Our concern was similar to that which the Supreme Court recently addressed in Apprendi v. New Jersey, 530 U.S. 466, 120 S.Ct. 2348, 147 L.Ed.2d 435 (2000).
. Hamling v. United States, 418 U.S. 87, 117, 94 S.Ct. 2887, 41 L.Ed.2d 590 (1974).
. U.S. Const, amend. VI (providing that "in all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right ... to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation”).
. U.S. Const. amend. V (protecting against double jeopardy).
. United. States v. Carll, 105 U.S. 611, 612, 26 L.Ed. 1135 (1882).
. 18 U.S.C. § 3 (2001).
. Id.
. See United States v. McLennan, 672 F.2d 239, 243 (1st Cir. 1982) (holding that the defendant's accessory indictment, which pleaded that the principal's crime was bail jumping, but not that the bail jumping was willful, was constitutionally sufficient).
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.