Ceballo v. United States

CourtDistrict Court, S.D. Florida
DecidedAugust 11, 2021
Docket9:18-cv-80661
StatusUnknown

This text of Ceballo v. United States (Ceballo v. United States) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, S.D. Florida primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Ceballo v. United States, (S.D. Fla. 2021).

Opinion

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF FLORIDA Case No. 9:18-CV-80661-RLR OSVALDO DOMINGO CEBALLO, Movant, vs. UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, Defendant. _______________________________/ ORDER ADOPTING REPORT AND RECOMMENDATION IN PART AND DECLINING TO ADOPT IN PART; DENYING AMENDED MOTION TO VACATE, SET ASIDE, OR CORRECT SENTENCE; AND CLOSING CASE I. INTRODUCTION This matter is before the Court on Movant Osvaldo Domingo Ceballo’s (“Movant”) Amended Motion Under 28 U.S.C. § 2255 to Vacate, Set Aside, or Correct Sentence (“Motion”) [DE 7]. On February 4 and 5, 2020, Magistrate Judge Lisette M. Reid held an evidentiary hearing. On February 11, 2021, the Magistrate Judge entered the Report of Magistrate Judge (“R&R”), wherein she recommended that Movant’s Motion be dismissed as untimely, and alternatively, denied on the merits. DE 55. Movant filed objections to the R&R [DE 58] and the Government filed a response to Movant’s objections [DE 59]. The Court has considered the R&R, Movant’s objections, the Government’s response, and the record, and is otherwise advised in the premises. For the reasons below, the Court declines to adopt the R&R’s recommendation to dismiss the Motion as untimely but adopts the recommendation that the Motion be denied on the merits. II. DISCUSSION a. Timeliness Before evaluating the merits of the Motion, the Magistrate Judge considered whether the Motion was timely pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 2255(f). A one-year limitation period applies to a

motion brought under 28 U.S.C. § 2255(f), running from the latest of: (1) the date on which the judgment of conviction becomes final; (2) the date on which the impediment to making a motion created by governmental action in violation of the Constitution or laws of the United States is removed, if the movant was prevented from making a motion by such governmental action;

(3) the date on which the right asserted was initially recognized by the Supreme Court, if that right has been newly recognized by the Supreme Court and made retroactively applicable to cases on collateral review; or

(4) the date on which the facts supporting the claim or claims presented could have been discovered through the exercise of due diligence.

28 U.S.C. § 2255(f). In her R&R, the Magistrate Judge concluded that pursuant to § 2255(f)(4), the limitation period began running in February 2017. DE 55 at 10. That month, Movant’s daughter, Stephanie Ceballo Monico (“Monico”), learned from her grandmother that Movant’s trial counsel, Richard Diaz (“Diaz”), had once represented Jose Sigler (“Sigler”), who was a co-defendant in Movant’s criminal case. Id. at 9. Sigler pled guilty in the criminal proceedings and testified against Movant at trial. Id. at 4.1 Also in February 2017, after learning about the possible conflict, Monico hired an attorney, Joseph Rosenbaum, to investigate Diaz’s alleged conflict of interest. Id. at 9. The Magistrate Judge thus concluded that the evidence of the conflict became “reasonably available”

1 Movant was ultimately found guilty at trial of conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute five or more kilograms of cocaine, in violation of 21 U.S.C. §§ 841(a)(1)-(b)(1)(A)(iii), 846, and 18 U.S.C. § 2 (Count 1), and possession with intent to distribute five kilograms or more of cocaine, in violation of 21 U.S.C. § 841(a)(1) and 18 U.S.C. § 2 (Count 2). Id. at 3. Movant was originally sentenced to 216 months in prison, but that was later reduced to 168 months. DE 7 at 1. in February 2017 and that Movant had until February 2018 to file his Motion. Id. at 10. Because Movant filed his Motion in May 2018, the Magistrate Judge recommended that it be dismissed as untimely. Id. Movant argues that the Magistrate Judge erred in concluding that the one-year limitation

period began in February 2017. DE 58 at 2-7. In February 2017, the conflict was merely a “vague rumor without any confirmation or specificity.” Id. at 3. Almost immediately, Monico engaged Rosenbaum to confirm that the conflict existed, and Rosenbaum hired a private investigator. Id. at 3-4. Despite those efforts, neither Rosenbaum nor the private investigator found any record of the conflict, in part because the case file for the matter in which Diaz represented Sigler had been scrubbed by the Broward Circuit Court. Id. at 3. Nor did Diaz’s name appear on the docket sheet for the case. Id. at 5. When asked by Rosenbaum if he had ever represented Sigler before, even Diaz himself did not recall doing so. Id. at 5. Only when Monico approached Sigler’s family in October 2017 did she finally obtain record evidence of Diaz representing Sigler. Id. at 6. The Government responds that Movant has not described his due diligence in discovering

the factual predicate of the claims. DE 59 at 4-5. Moreover, despite his knowledge that the one- year limitation period lapsed in February 2018, and despite his possession of record evidence of the past representation in October 2017, Movant failed to file his Motion between October 2017 and February 2018. Id. at 8. The circumstances illustrate, according to the Government, that the Movant failed to exercise due diligence even after discovering the evidence underlying his claim. Id. The Magistrate Judge thus correctly found that Movant had the resources and knowledge to obtain record evidence in February 2017. Id. Pursuant to § 2254(f)(4), the one-year limitations period begins to run from “the date on which the facts supporting the claim or claims presented could have been discovered through the exercise of due diligence.” 28 U.S.C. § 2255(f)(4). If a movant exercised due diligence, “the limitations period begins to run on the date he actually discovered the relevant facts.” Lanier v. United States, 769 F. App’x 847, 849 (11th Cir. 2019) (per curiam). If a movant did not exercise diligence, “a court is required to speculate about the date on which the relevant facts could have

been discovered.” Id. Here, Movant has not offered evidence proving that he exercised due diligence himself. Movant’s testimony at the February 4, 2020 hearing instead suggests that his family members conducted all due diligence for him. See DE 52 at 14 (“[Movant]: I was limited, I was in prison, so my family handled everything for me outside.”). Indeed, among other efforts, Monico hired Rosenbaum to represent Movant, and Monico contacted the Sigler family in October 2017 to obtain evidence that Diaz had represented Sigler. As such, the Magistrate Judge correctly found that Movant did not present evidence that he exercised due diligence himself. The Court must therefore speculate about the date on which the relevant facts underlying Movant’s claims were discoverable through due diligence. The phrase “due diligence” in § 2255(f)(4) does not mean or require “maximum feasible diligence,” but instead requires Movant

“to make reasonable efforts.” Aron v. United States, 291 F.3d 708, 712 (11th Cir. 2002).

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Ceballo v. United States, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/ceballo-v-united-states-flsd-2021.