United States of America, Appellee-Cross-Appellant v. Frank Grisanti, A/K/A "Chickie Botts", Defendant-Appellant-Cross-Appellee

116 F.3d 984, 1997 U.S. App. LEXIS 16144
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Second Circuit
DecidedJune 30, 1997
Docket1047, 1048, Dockets 96-1416(L), 96-1459(XAP)
StatusPublished
Cited by12 cases

This text of 116 F.3d 984 (United States of America, Appellee-Cross-Appellant v. Frank Grisanti, A/K/A "Chickie Botts", Defendant-Appellant-Cross-Appellee) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
United States of America, Appellee-Cross-Appellant v. Frank Grisanti, A/K/A "Chickie Botts", Defendant-Appellant-Cross-Appellee, 116 F.3d 984, 1997 U.S. App. LEXIS 16144 (2d Cir. 1997).

Opinion

WALKER, Circuit Judge:

Defendant Frank Grisanti appeals from an order of the United States District Court for the Western District of New York (John T. Elfvin, Judge) that denied in part and granted in part Grisanti’s motion to dismiss his indictment on the grounds of double jeopardy. The issue on appeal is whether the Double Jeopardy Clause prevents the government from prosecuting a defendant for obstruction of justice where the same conduct was previously used to enhance the defendant’s sentence for a separate criminal offense under U.S.S.G. § 3C1.1. We conclude that it does not.

We affirm in part and vacate and remand for sentencing in part.

I. BACKGROUND

On October 3, 1991, a grand jury returned two indictments against Grisanti, charging him with several counts of bank fraud in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1014, conspiracy to commit bank fraud in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 371, and illegal racketeering in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1962(c)-(d) (the “bank fraud indictments”). On October 10, 1991, Grisanti was arraigned and released on a $10,000 personal recognizance bond subject to several conditions of release. One of these conditions barred Grisanti from contacting any potential witness (defined as anyone named in the indictments). And another required that Grisanti report any such contact within twenty-four hours to the probation office.

On November 5, 1991, the government filed a motion to revoke Grisanti’s pretrial release on the basis that Grisanti contacted a witness and failed to promptly report it. At the hearing on the motion, the government presented evidence that on November 1, 1991, Grisanti met with David Petri, a witness named in the indictments, and tried to persuade Petri to give testimony at trial that differed from his grand jury testimony. Four days later, in anticipation of a bail revocation hearing, Grisanti called Petri at Petri’s office to persuade Petri to give false testimony regarding the substance of their November 1 conversation.

At the hearing’s close, the magistrate judge revoked Grisanti’s bail, finding by clear and convincing evidence that Grisanti violated the conditions of his release by contacting Petri and by failing to promptly report this contact to pretrial services. The district *986 court affirmed the magistrate judge’s order, and Grisanti was remanded to custody.

On June 4, 1992, a grand jury returned a five count indictment (the “obstruction of justice indictment”) arising from Grisanti’s misconduct in contacting Petri. Count One charged that Grisanti had unlawfully and knowingly contacted Petri in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 401(3). Count Two charged that Grisanti failed to report his contacts with Petri in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 401(3). Count Three charged that Grisanti attempted to persuade Petri “to give testimony ... that differed from the testimony that Petri had given to the grand jury” in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1512(b). Count Four charged that Grisanti made false statements to a probation officer in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1001. Count Five charged that Grisanti attempted to influence Petri’s testimony “in any proceedings that might be brought ... to revoke [Grisanti’s] release for violating” the conditions of his bail in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1512(b).

On July 27,1992, trial on the obstruction of justice indictment commenced before Judge Elfvin, and two days later, the jury found Grisanti guilty on Counts One and Two, but was unable to reach a verdict on Counts Three and Five. Count Four was dismissed at the close of the government’s case and is not at issue on this appeal.

On July 30, 1992, the district court declared a mistrial on Counts Three and Five and scheduled a hearing to set a date for retrial. Prior to retrial, however, Grisanti moved to dismiss Counts Three and Five, arguing that the earlier termination of his pretrial release based on the conduct charged in Counts Three and Five amounted to punishment for his obstruction conduct, and thus prosecution on those counts was barred by the Double Jeopardy Clause. The district court granted the motion and, on appeal, we reversed, holding that because “the bail revocation hearing was not ‘essentially criminal,’ and the pretrial detention was not punishment, Grisanti ha[d] not twice been put in jeopardy.” United States v. Grisanti, 4 F.3d 173,175 (2d Cir.1993).

Meanwhile, a jury trial commenced on the bank fraud indictments before Judge Arcara, and on September 3, 1993, Grisanti was convicted of eight counts of making false statements on loan applications and acquitted on the remaining counts. On February 11, 1994, Judge Arcara sentenced Grisanti to twenty-four months of imprisonment and one year of supervised release for his bank fraud offenses. In sentencing Grisanti, Judge Ar-cara enhanced Grisanti’s bank fraud offense level by two pursuant to U.S.S.G. § 3C1.1 for obstruction of justice based on Grisanti’s “attempt[] to unlawfully influence Mr. Petri with respect to Mr. Petri’s testimony.” Judge Arcara noted that:

the conduct that forms the basis for the obstruction of justice enhancement is also the basis for a separate indictment[, the obstruction of justice indictment,] ... in which the defendant was charged with two counts of criminal contempt, two counts of witness tampering and one count of making a false statement to a defendant’s pretrial officer....
The Court mentions this because, to the extent the two-level obstruction enhancement in this case is based on the same conduct that forms the basis for the [obstruction of justice] indictment before Judge Elfvin, double jeopardy concerns are implicated.... To the extent that the grounds for the enhancement overlap the charges in [the obstruction of justice indictment] that can and should be factored into defendant’s sentence on the charges before Judge Elfvin.

On April 12, 1994, retrial commenced on Counts Three and Five of the obstruction of justice indictment, and the following day, the jury convicted Grisanti on Count Five, but acquitted him on Count Three. On April 15, 1996, in response to a motion to dismiss Counts One, Two, and Five by Grisanti, Judge Elfvin issued an order dismissing Counts One and Two on double jeopardy grounds. Judge Elfvin did not dismiss Count Five. On May 20, 1996, Judge Elfvin sentenced Grisanti on Count Five to eight months of imprisonment to be followed by a twenty-four month term of supervised released.

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116 F.3d 984, 1997 U.S. App. LEXIS 16144, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-of-america-appellee-cross-appellant-v-frank-grisanti-aka-ca2-1997.