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United States v. Mendoza, No 06-2999.

A jury found José Mendoza guilty of distributing amphetamine in violation of 21 U.S.C. § 841(a)(1).  Mendoza challenges the sufficiency of the government’s evidence against him and the district court’s procedure for identifying alternate jurors.  We affirm.

At the beginning of his trial on...

USA v. Shaun Brown, 05-4690.  Arthur Veal ran a trucking business, one function of which was to import large quantities of cocaine. Shaun Brown was among Veal’s regular customers.   On November 15, 2000, one of Veal’s trucks arrived in Dolton, Illinois, carrying 25 kilograms of cocaine. Veal called Brown, who had arranged to...

USA v. Morad Abu Sliman, 05-3056. This is an amount of loss opinion. The defendant engaged in a scheme with others involving counterfeit and forged checks.

Held:  The government must prove sentencing enhancements by a preponderance of evidence standard.  Here, the district court determined that the intended fraud amount was...

USA v. Brian L. Hines, 005-2542.  A bank fraud case.  At the time of defendant’s arrest by warrant, agent’s see a hatchet in def’s vehicle. Agent’s ask def for consent to search. Def denies permission until agent states that he will impound the car and conduct inventory search of vehicle. Def consents to...

USA v. Michael J. Brisson, 05-1540.  Brisson commits tax fraud and bank fraud by purchasing a property with phony documents. The plea agreement consolidated the counts together using USSG 2B1.1 loss table to calculate the sentence.

The district court disagreed and calculated the tax and bank fraud separately to give...

USA v. Raul and Paqul Romero, 05-3294 and 05-3681.   A grand jury in the returned an 18-count superseding indictment charging narcotics violations against seven individuals including Raul and Ricardo Romero.   The government alleged that Raul Romero was a drug dealer in the organization while Ricardo Romero was a drug courier.

USA v. James Fife and Karen Krahn, 06-2037, 06-2038 & 06-2175.  James Fife pled guilty to four counts of willfully making and subscribing a false income tax return in violation of 26 U.S.C. § 7206(1). Karen Krahn, Fife’s wife, pled guilty to one count of willfully aiding and assisting in the preparation and...

USA v. Matthew Hale, 05-1922.  Mathew Hale, aka Pontificus Maximus, represents himself on appeal on his way to having his 40 year sentence affirmed.  He starts out with a sufficiency of evidence argument.  As the court stated, the hurdle on this argument is often "insurmountable."  As a starting point the court concludes...

USA v. Jerome Kindle, 05-2741.   Kindle appeals the district courts finding that he is a career offender and  that burglary is a crime of violence.   "Career offender" and "Crime of Violence" are findings of law and are reviewed de novo by the 7th Circuit. 

Here, Kindle admits that his...

USA v. Randell Thomas, 04-2063.  Thomas appeals his felon in possession of ammunition conviction, 18 USC 922 (g)(1).  At trial, the government played a 911 call   Thomas argues that the playing of the 911 tape violated his Sixth Amendment right to confrontation. 

The Sixth Amendment right to confrontation only applies...