Roy v. United States

347 F. Supp. 3d 230
CourtDistrict Court, S.D. Illinois
DecidedNovember 13, 2018
Docket18-cv-3105 (JGK)
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 347 F. Supp. 3d 230 (Roy v. United States) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, S.D. Illinois primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Roy v. United States, 347 F. Supp. 3d 230 (S.D. Ill. 2018).

Opinion

JOHN G. KOELTL, United States District Judge:

On October 19, 2017, the petitioner, Anik Roy, pleaded guilty pursuant to a plea agreement to Counts I and II of an indictment. Count I charged the petitioner with conspiracy in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 371 to violate 18 U.S.C. § 641 ; Count II charged the petitioner with the substantive offense of theft of Government funds, in violation of 18 U.S.C. §§ 641 and 2. By pleading guilty pursuant to the plea agreement, the petitioner avoided pleading guilty to Count III of the indictment, which charged him with aggravated identity theft, in violation of 18 U.S.C. §§ 1028A(a)(1), 1029(b)(2), and 2, a charge that was dismissed at sentencing.

On February 26, 2018, this Court sentenced the petitioner primarily to a term of six months' imprisonment and a three-year term of supervised release with a condition of six months' home confinement on Count I and II, to run concurrently. As a result of his conviction and sentence, the petitioner, a noncitizen, is subject to mandatory removal under 8 U.S.C. § 1227(a)(2)(A)(iii) for committing aggravated felonies.

The petitioner timely filed a habeas petition under 28 U.S.C. § 2255, seeking to set aside his conviction and sentence on grounds of alleged ineffective assistance of counsel. For the reasons explained below, the petition is granted in part .

I.

The petitioner entered the United States from Bangladesh sometime in late 2007 or 2008 with a diversity visa. Pet. Ex. E at ¶¶ 50, 52. In December 2016, the petitioner was charged in the three-count indictment described above. Pet. Ex. B. The charges related to a scheme carried out from September 2011 to March 2015 whereby the petitioner and a co-defendant filed false tax returns and obtained refund checks to which they were not entitled. Pet. at 1.

The petitioner was represented by experienced defense counsel throughout his criminal proceeding. Ultimately, the petitioner agreed to plead guilty to Counts I and II and stipulated that the Government's loss was at least $95,000. Pet. at 5. The petitioner was sentenced principally to a term of six months' imprisonment to be followed by three years of supervised release with a condition of six months' home confinement on each count, with the sentences on each count to run concurrently. The petitioner was also ordered to pay restitution in the amount of $114,669.45 to *235the Internal Revenue Service. Pet. Ex. G at 19.

Represented by new counsel, the petitioner filed this 28 U.S.C. § 2255 petition, arguing that trial counsel rendered ineffective assistance by failing to: (1) explain adequately the immigration consequences of his conviction, resulting in the petitioner unknowingly and involuntarily entering his plea of guilty; (2) seek a plea to a nonaggravated felony; (3) advise the Court, for sentencing purposes, of the petitioner's presumptively mandatory removal; and (4) ask for a sentence of one day less than a year so that the petitioner's offenses of conviction would not be classified as aggravated felonies. This Court held an evidentiary hearing on September 20, 2018, at which trial counsel, an immigration lawyer who was consulted by trial counsel, and the petitioner all testified. Having reviewed the evidence and assessed the credibility of the witnesses, the Court makes the following findings of fact and reaches the following conclusions of law.

Trial counsel, assisted by an associate and an intern in his office, researched the immigration consequences facing the petitioner. Hearing Tr. at 33-34. He also consulted a member of the Immigrant Defense Project and immigration counsel. Id. at 22-24. Trial counsel determined that Counts I and II were most likely aggravated felonies, and that the petitioner would be removable if he pleaded guilty to those Counts. Id. at 36-37, 66-67. The Government also believed that Counts I and II were aggravated felonies. Trial Counsel Decl. ¶ 14.

Trial counsel testified credibly that he explained to the petitioner the immigration consequences of pleading guilty to these counts. Hearing Tr. at 66-67. But the petitioner was uninterested in going to trial after trial counsel told the petitioner that the Government had a strong case against him. Id. at 67, 102-03. According to trial counsel, the petitioner was concerned primarily with resolving his case in a way involving as little prison time as possible; the petitioner expressed repeatedly that he wished to avoid incarceration. Id. at 51-52. Trial counsel therefore negotiated a plea of guilty to Counts I and II and dismissal of Count III, which carried a two-year mandatory minimum sentence. Id. at 72.

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Bluebook (online)
347 F. Supp. 3d 230, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/roy-v-united-states-ilsd-2018.