Fermin v. United States

859 F. Supp. 2d 590, 2012 WL 1632696
CourtDistrict Court, S.D. New York
DecidedMay 4, 2012
DocketNos. 10 Civ. 5462(VM), 91 CR. 634(VM)
StatusPublished
Cited by13 cases

This text of 859 F. Supp. 2d 590 (Fermin v. United States) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, S.D. New York primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Fermin v. United States, 859 F. Supp. 2d 590, 2012 WL 1632696 (S.D.N.Y. 2012).

Opinion

DECISION AND ORDER

VICTOR MARRERO, District Judge.

Pro se petitioner Freddy Fermín (“Fermín”) petitions pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 2255 (“§ 2255”) to vacate, set aside, or otherwise correct his sentence. Fermín, who was sentenced to a 262-month prison term, is currently out of prison serving a six-year term of supervised release. Fermín contends that his sentence must be vacated because the Government violated his Fifth Amendment right to due process and his Sixth Amendment right to the effective assistance of counsel.

By Order dated March 30, 2012, the Court preliminarily denied Fermin’s petition, for which the Court now sets forth its findings, reasoning, and conclusions.

I. BACKGROUND1

A. THE FIRST JUDGMENT OF CONVICTION2

Fermín and his brothers Juan and Hector were joint owners of 3-Way Auto Body (“3-Way Auto”), an auto-repair business in Bronx County, New York. In 1990, the New York Drug Enforcement Task Force (the “Task Force”), a collaboration of New York state and federal narcotics officers, began to investigate the Fermín brothers, 3-Way Auto, and their associates (collectively, the “3-Way Auto Organization”) for trafficking in controlled substances.

On January 29, 1991, the Government submitted to the Honorable Pierre N. Le-val, then a United States District Court Judge of the Southern District of New York, a Title III application to wiretap three telephone lines at 3-Way Auto, including a 52-page affidavit (the “Affidavit”) in support of the wiretap by a Task Force member involved in the 3-Way Auto investigation. The Affidavit heavily relied on the statements and observations made by two confidential informants (“CI-1” and “CI-2”) as the basis for probable cause to believe that the members of the 3-Way Auto Organization were using the target telephone lines in order to traffic in narcotics. It was later revealed the Affidavit contained several material misstatements and omissions regarding CI-1. See United [593]*593States v. Juan Fermin, 32 F.3d 674, 675-77 (2d Cir.1994). However, Judge Leval was unaware of the misinformation, and authorized wiretaps on the target telephone lines. Conversations recorded from these wiretaps were later used as the basis for a warrant to search Fermin’s apartment, from which Task Force members recovered drugs and a gun. The recordings, drugs, and gun (the “Wiretap Evidence”) were used to implicate Fermín in the 3-Way Auto Organization’s narcotics trafficking enterprise.

On July 30, 1991, a grand jury indicted Fermín and other members of the 3-Way Auto Organization for narcotics offenses and related crimes. In that indictment, Fermín was charged with one count of conspiracy to distribute and possess with intent to distribute narcotics in violation of 21 U.S.C. § 846 (“Count Two”), one count of operating a business for the purpose of distributing narcotics in violation of 21 U.S.C. § 856(a) (“Count Three”), two counts of using or carrying a firearm during and in relation to a drug trafficking crime in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 924(c) (“Count Four” and “Count Five”), and one count of possession of a weapon as a prior felon in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 922(g) (“Count Six”). On April 14, 1992, a petit jury convicted Fermín of all five counts. Fermin’s conviction with respect to Count Five was vacated after trial, with the consent of the Government, by the Honorable Judge Louis J. Freeh, then a United States District Judge of the Southern District of New York presiding over the trial.

On October 15, 1993, Fermín was sentenced by the Honorable Michael B. Mukasey, then a United States District Judge of the Southern District of New York, to a total prison term of 360 months, followed by a ten-year term of supervised release.3 This first judgment of conviction was entered on October 28, 1993, and became final on February 21, 1995, the date on which the United States Supreme Court denied Fermin’s petition for a writ of certiorari.4

B. THE SECOND JUDGMENT OF CONVICTION

Fermín made three unsuccessful attempts to argue that Government misinformation regarding CI-1 and CI-2 warranted relief, Fermin’s first attempt occurred before trial, when he and the other defendants moved under Franks v. Delaware, 438 U.S. 154, 98 S.Ct. 2674, 57 L.Ed.2d 667 (1978), to suppress the Wiretap Evidence because of the misstatements and omissions in the Affidavit regarding CI-1. This motion was denied by Judge Freeh, who found that even considering the misstatements and omissions, the Affidavit still “set forth ample corroboration of CI-l’s information” to find “probable cause to believe that communications concerning the narcotics-related offenses under investigation were occurring inside” 3-Way Auto. United States v. Juan Fermin, No. [594]*59491 CR. 634, 1992 WL 188372, at *2-3 (S.D.N.Y. July 30,1992).

Fermin made a second attempt after his conviction when, on September 18, 1992, he moved for a new trial under Rule 33 of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure. In his Rule 33 motion he argued not only that the Government made misstatements and omissions rendering CI-l’s information unreliable, but, for the first time, Fer-min asserted that CI-2’s information was unreliable as well. Judge Freeh denied the motion, finding that there was sufficient, independent evidence corroborating the information provided by both CI-1 and CI-2 to find probable cause.

Fermin made his third attempt during the appeal of his conviction and sentence, where he again argued that the Wiretap Evidence should have been suppressed because CI-1 and CI-2’s information was unreliable. This attempt failed when the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit affirmed Judge Freeh’s ruling that law enforcement had properly obtained the Wiretap Evidence. See Juan Fermin, 32 F.3d at 677.

Despite rejecting Fermin’s attempt to allege reversible error because of the Government’s misinformation, the Second Circuit vacated Fermin’s sentence on other grounds. The Second Circuit found that the sentencing court had improperly enhanced Fermin’s sentence on grounds that Fermin had a supervisory role in the 3-Way Auto Organization, without first making “specific factual findings” to that effect. See id. at 682. The case was then remanded for resentencing.5

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859 F. Supp. 2d 590, 2012 WL 1632696, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/fermin-v-united-states-nysd-2012.