In U.S. v. Magluta, No. 03-10694 (July 27, 2005), the Court (Carnes, Cox, Mills b.d.) affirmed all convictions except one for obstruction of justice through juror bribery. The Court rejected Maglutta’s challenge to his sentence, but vacated the sentence for resentencing in light of whatever disposition occurred with regard to the now-vacated obstruction count.
The Court rejected the argument that Magluta’s prior acquittal on drug trafficking charges barred the introduction of evidence relating to these offenses at his subsequent money laundering trial. The Court noted that, for jury acquittals, the doctrine of collateral estoppel only bars reprosecution if the legal elements of the offense overlap and there is "factual identity" of the issues. Here, the elements did not overlap, because the money laundering charges did not require the government to prove that Maglutta himself engaged in drug trafficking: "As far as the money laundering statute is concerned, laundering someone else’s illegal proceeds is just as bad as laundering your own."
The Court also rejected Magluta’s attack on the sufficiency of the evidence supporting his money laundering convictions. Magluta argued that the laundered money lost its "tainted" character because, through the auspices of a government informant, it passed under the control of law enforcement. While stopping short of holding that this argument had no merit, the Court held that given the limited control of the government over the laundered funds in this case, the level of involvement was not enough to undermine the conviction.
The Court also rejected the argument that since Magluta used the proceeds of unlawful activity to pay his lawyers, here was merely spending the money, not concealing its source. However, Magluta’s use of a false name on the foreign bank account on which the checks were drawn showed that he went to "great pains" to conceal the fact that he was using drug proceeds to pay his lawyers.
The Court found merit in Magluta’s challenge to the admission in evidence, in the count for obstruction of justice through bribery of a juror, of the allegedly-bribed juror’s statement to a government informant -- two and half years after the bribery -- that he would keep quiet about the bribe. The statement had been admitted over a hearsay objection as a co-conspirator statement made in furtherance of the conspiracy. Magluta claimed that the statement was made well after the conspiracy ended. The Court noted that keeping an initial conspiracy secret is not part of the conspiracy, and concealing the source of the money when the juror made purchases was not part of the initial conspiracy either. The Court found that the error in admitting the statement was not harmless, as it directly tied Magluta to the bribe.
The Court rejected Magluta’s argument that documents were illegally seized from the trunk of a vehicle driven by Bonachea, a Magluta associate, based on an anonymous phone call to the U.S. Attorney alerting him to the existence of incriminating documents in the trunk. Bonachea’s vehicle was stopped for speeding, and a drug dog alerted for marijuana inside the car.
Assuming, without deciding, that Magluta had standing to contest the search of Bonachea’s vehicle, the Court found that the officers had probable cause to to believe that the trunk contained evidence of a crime. The anonymous tip was entitled to substantial weight, because it was correct as to several specifics relating to Bonachea, her schedule and her vehicle.
The Court found no error in the dollar drug amount imputed to Magluta for sentencing purposes. The Court pointed that any error was harmless in light of the sentencing court’s stated intention in the alternative to depart upward to reflect the "anomaly" of Magluta’s prior acquittal.
The Court also rejected the argument that Booker had undermined the Guideline rule which requires sentences to run consecutively to achieve the range set the guidelines. The Court noted that Booker had merely made the Guidelines advisory, and did not affect the validity of Guideline rule.
