Justia U.S. 10th Circuit Court of Appeals Opinion Summaries

The Tenth Circuit affirmed the district court's denial of defendant's motion to suppress evidence after defendant pleaded guilty to possession of a firearm by a convicted felon. The court held that, regardless of whether the district court was correct in concluding that the affidavit was insufficient to establish probable cause, the good-faith exception to the warrant requirement precluded suppression of the fruit of the subsequent search. In this case, the affidavit supporting the warrant had enough indicia of reliability to support the detective's good faith reliance on the warrant. View "United States v. Knox" on Justia Law

The Tenth Circuit affirmed defendant's conviction and sentence for forcibly opposing a federal officer in violation of 18 U.S.C. 111(b), and three lesser crimes. The court held that a district court did not commit clear and obvious error by failing to instruct a jury that assault was an element of a section 111(a)(1) conviction; the invited error doctrine applied in cases such as this one, where the defendant requested the jury instruction he later challenged on appeal; and thus defendant's challenge to the section 111 jury instruction was precluded by the invited error doctrine. The court also held that the district court provided an adequate explanation of "generalized reasons" sufficient to enable the court to conduct a proper review and the imposition of the mental health treatment reasonably related to at least one of the statutory factors: defendant's history and characteristics. View "United States v. Jereb" on Justia Law

The Tenth Circuit affirmed the district court's denial of defendant's motion to suppress evidence after he pleaded guilty to being a felon in possession of firearms and ammunition. The court held that the affidavit submitted in support of the search warrant established a minimally sufficient nexus between the place to be searched and the suspected criminal activity to make the officers' reliance on the warrant reasonable. View "United States v. Chambers" on Justia Law

The Tenth Circuit affirmed the district court's denial of defendant's motion to suppress evidence after he pleaded guilty to being a felon in possession of firearms and ammunition. The court held that the affidavit submitted in support of the search warrant established a minimally sufficient nexus between the place to be searched and the suspected criminal activity to make the officers' reliance on the warrant reasonable. View "United States v. Chambers" on Justia Law

Steven Ford was sentenced to twenty years’ imprisonment for various firearms-possession charges, followed by three years of supervised release. Because of a sex-offense conviction nineteen years earlier, the district court placed sex-offense-specific conditions on Ford’s term of supervised release. Specifically, the court required Ford to undergo a sex-offender assessment, and if recommended by the assessment, to submit to treatment which could include polygraph questioning about his sexual past. Ford contended on appeal that the district court abused its discretion because the sex-offender conditions are not reasonably related to the sentencing factors in 18 U.S.C. 3583. After review, the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals held that, notwithstanding Ford’s long custodial sentence and new life sentence for a different crime, Ford’s challenge was ripe for review. Furthermore, the Court determined the district court did not abuse its discretion by requiring Ford to undergo a sex-offender risk assessment as a condition of supervised release. View "United States v. Ford" on Justia Law

Kay Tee appealed his conviction on three federal criminal counts: (1) attempted coercion and enticement to travel to engage in prostitution; (2) interstate transportation in aid of racketeering enterprises; and (3) money laundering. These counts grew out of Tee’s discussions with a government informant (known as “Lucy”). The government’s trial theory was that Tee had tried to help Lucy, thinking that she wanted to buy a massage parlor and operate it as a prostitution business. Tee denied guilt and pressed an affirmative defense of entrapment. The jury rejected the entrapment defense and found guilt on the three counts. Tee appealed, challenging the sufficiency of the evidence, arguing racial discrimination during voir dire, and trial court errors in admitting certain evidence. Finding no reversible error, the Tenth Circuit affirmed Tee’s convictions. View "United States v. Tee" on Justia Law

Defendant-appellant Jeffrey Stevens was indicted on 10 counts of interstate communication with intent to injure for posting 10 messages on the Tulsa Police Department’s (“TPD”) online “Citizen Complaint” form. The messages discussed committing violence against specific members of the TPD or TPD officers generally. Stevens moved to dismiss the indictment on First Amendment grounds, arguing his messages were not true threats. The district court denied the motion because a reasonable jury could construe the messages to be true threats. Stevens pled guilty to five counts conditioned on his right to appeal the denial of his motion. The Tenth Circuit determined the district court properly denied Stevens’s motion: “a reasonable jury could understand his messages to be true threats.” View "United States v. Stevens" on Justia Law

Defendant-appellant Jason Greer appeals the district court’s denial of his motion to vacate, set aside, or correct his sentence, contenting the Supreme Court’s decision in Johnson v. United States, 135 S. Ct. 2551 (2015), finding unconstitutional the residual clause of the Armed Career Criminal Act, also invalidated the identically worded provision in the mandatory United States Sentencing Guidelines. He argued that he was entitled to resentencing because the court relied on the residual clause of the mandatory Guidelines to enhance his sentence. The district court denied Greer’s motion, holding that he was sentenced under the element clause of the mandatory Guidelines rather than the residual clause. Finding no reversible error in that decision, the Tenth Circuit affirmed. View "United States v. Greer" on Justia Law

Defendant Joseph Lynch, II was a first-class passenger on a flight from Philadelphia to Denver. Defendant had consumed at least six beers prior to boarding, and began behaving in a loud, unruly manner once the flight was underway. He repeatedly placed his hands on first-class flight attendant’s lower back as she was serving him beverages, which made her feel “very uncomfortable,” and she tried to move out of his reach each time. Flight attendants refused to serve defendant any more alcohol during the flight, at which point defendant became “irate” and started shouting obscenities to the cabin crew. Defendant was arrested upon landing; while in custody, he continued shouting expletives. A jury found Defendant guilty of violating 49 U.S.C. 46504, which prohibits the in-flight assault or intimidation of a flight crew member or flight attendant that interferes with his or her duties. He received a sentence of four months, followed by a three-year term of supervised release. On appeal, Defendant challenged the district court’s interpretation of the statute, the constitutionality of the statute, and the length of his sentence. After reviewing the district court’s sentencing decision, the Tenth Circuit found no evidence of error and affirmed defendant’s conviction and sentence. View "United States v. Lynch" on Justia Law

Defendants-Appellants Matthew and Brandi Channon s used fictitious names and addresses to open rewards accounts at OfficeMax, known as “MaxPerks” accounts. They used these accounts to fraudulently obtain more than $100,000 in OfficeMax products. The scheme came to light when Steven Gardner, an OfficeMax fraud investigator, noticed an unusually high number of online-adjustments across several different accounts. Gardner observed that most of the accounts were registered to one of three email addresses, differing only with interspersed periods between the characters of each address. OfficeMax recognized the variations as unique email addresses, but gmail did not. Defendants then used these fraudulent email addresses to claim purchases by other customers, thus generating rewards to which they were not entitled. They also used various accounts to sell more than 27,000 used ink cartridges, receiving $3 in rewards from OfficeMax for each after paying an average of $.32 per cartridge on eBay. In total, over the 21 months of their scheme, Defendants redeemed $105,191 in OfficeMax rewards. Defendants were ultimately were convicted by a jury of wire fraud and conspiracy to commit wire fraud relating to a scheme to defraud OfficeMax. They appealed, challenging the district court’s decision to: (1) admit exhibits derived from computer records and (2) enter a money judgment forfeiture. The Tenth Circuit Court of Appeal upheld the district court’s admission of the exhibits but remanded so the district court may conduct further proceedings on the money judgment of forfeiture. View "United States v. Channon (Matthew)" on Justia Law