United States v. Alfred Gene Bridges

344 F.3d 1010, 2003 Daily Journal DAR 10861, 2003 Cal. Daily Op. Serv. 8629, 92 A.F.T.R.2d (RIA) 6213, 2003 U.S. App. LEXIS 19665, 2003 WL 22203736
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
DecidedSeptember 24, 2003
Docket01-30316
StatusPublished
Cited by52 cases

This text of 344 F.3d 1010 (United States v. Alfred Gene Bridges) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
United States v. Alfred Gene Bridges, 344 F.3d 1010, 2003 Daily Journal DAR 10861, 2003 Cal. Daily Op. Serv. 8629, 92 A.F.T.R.2d (RIA) 6213, 2003 U.S. App. LEXIS 19665, 2003 WL 22203736 (9th Cir. 2003).

Opinions

Opinion by Judge D.W. NELSON; Partial Concurrence and Partial Dissent by Judge THOMAS.

OPINION

D.W. NELSON, Senior Circuit Judge.

Alfred Bridges appeals his conviction following a jury trial for conspiracy to defraud the United States, making false claims to the United States, and mail fraud. Bridges contends that the district court erred in denying his motion to suppress evidence that was seized by the Government with an invalid search warrant. Bridges also challenges the district court’s conviction and judgment because the Government allegedly violated his rights under [1013]*1013the Due Process clause by applying a “secret” policy to him in violation of the Taxpayer Bill of Rights. Lastly, Bridges claims that the district court’s instructions to the jury were deficient. We have jurisdiction pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1291. We agree with Bridges that the search warrant was invalid and excessively broad in its scope. Bridges’s Due Process claim is without merit, and we decline to reach the issue of the adequacy of the challenged jury instructions. Accordingly, Bridges’s conviction is vacated and we remand to the district court for a new trial.

I. Factual and Procedural Background

Bridges operated a tax consulting business, Associated Tax Consultants (“ATC”), in Billings, Montana. Between 1997 and 2000, ATC generated $679,260.11 in revenue from its tax consulting business with more than 300 clients in thirty states. ATC advised its clients not to pay federal income taxes. According to ATC, residents of the United States are not liable for federal income taxes if they declare that they are “non-resident aliens.”

Agents of the IRS’s Criminal Investigation Division (“CID”) launched an undercover investigation into ATC’s operations in 1998. Undercover Treasury agents posing as prospective clients of ATC visited ATC’s offices in 1999 and 2000. Bridges met with an undercover Treasury agent at ATC’s offices for the first time in April 1999. Bridges advised the agent that he could avoid paying federal taxes if he declared to the IRS that he was a “nonresident alien.” Bridges stated, “Once you become a client [of ATC], the point of the whole thing is not to pay [the IRS].”

From 1997 to 2000, ATC filed more than 100 claims with the IRS requesting tax refunds on behalf of its “non-resident alien” clients. On at least ten occasions, the IRS responded to ATC’s claims with a form letter denying the claim and advising claimants that:

There are people who encourage others to deliberately violate our nation’s tax laws. It would be unfortunate if you were to rely on their opinions. These persons take legal statements out of context and claim that they are not subject to tax laws.... Taxpayers who purchase this kind of information often wind up paying more in taxes, interest, and penalties than they would have paid simply by filing correct tax returns.

On no occasion did the IRS ever grant any of ATC’s requests for a taxpayer refund.

The IRS obtained a search warrant from the district court to search ATC’s offices in Billings. On January 13, 2000, Treasury agents executed the warrant and searched Bridges’s offices located at 3021 6th Avenue North. The agents seized ATC’s computer system, client files, tax codes, correspondence from ATC’s clients, ATC’s seminar videos, and other business documents and equipment found on the premises.

On March 10, 2000, Bridges requested that the IRS produce a copy of the Application and Affidavit for Search Warrant it filed in district court and return the items seized from his office. Bridges’s request was denied by the district court. Bridges appealed. Before this Court could rule on his appeal, a federal grand jury in Montana indicted Bridges. This Court subsequently dismissed Bridges’s appeal in a published opinion. See In re 3021 6th Ave. N., Billings, MT, 237 F.3d 1039 (9th Cir.2001) (finding that the district court’s intervening indictment of Bridges caused this Court to lose jurisdiction over his appeal).

In August 2000, Bridges moved to suppress the items seized from ATC’s offices, to have his property returned, and to dis[1014]*1014miss the indictment. Bridges’s motions were denied by the district court and the action proceeded to trial. In April 2001, a jury returned a verdict in favor of the Government, convicting Bridges of forty-one of the forty-four counts charged against him.

Bridges was sentenced to fifty-seven months imprisonment and three years supervised release.

II. Standard of Review

Motions to suppress are reviewed de novo. See United States v. Jones, 286 F.3d 1146, 1150 (9th Cir.2002). The issuance of a search warrant by a magistrate judge is reviewed for clear error. See United States v. Wright, 215 F.3d 1020, 1025 (9th Cir.2000). Motions to dismiss an indictment based on improper or outrageous Government conduct are reviewed de novo. United States v. Lazarevich, 147 F.3d 1061, 1065 (9th Cir.1998). The district court’s ruling on a Rule 29 motion for acquittal is also reviewed de novo. See United States v. Ruiz-Lopez, 234 F.3d 445, 447 (9th Cir.2001).

III. Discussion

A. Fourth Amendment Claim

The Fourth Amendment states in pertinent part that, “The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause.” U.S. Const, amend. IV. “These words are precise and clear.” Stanford v. Texas, 379 U.S. 476, 85 S.Ct. 506, 13 L.Ed.2d 431 (1965). “It is familiar history that indiscriminate searches and seizures conducted under the authority of ‘general warrants’ were the immediate evils that motivated the framing and adoption of the Fourth Amendment.” Payton v. New York, 445 U.S. 573, 583, 100 S.Ct. 1371, 63 L.Ed.2d 639 (1980) (footnote omitted).1 “The Amendment is to be liberally construed and all owe the duty of vigilance for its effective enforcement lest there shall be impairment of the rights for the protection of which it was adopted.” Go-Bart Importing Co. v. United States, 282 U.S. 344, 357, 51 S.Ct. 153, 75 L.Ed. 374 (1931).

1. ■ The Government possessed probable cause to search ATC’s offices.

In Illinois v. Gates, 462 U.S. 213, 238-39, 103 S.Ct. 2317, 76 L.Ed.2d 527 (1983), the Supreme Court

[R]eaffirm[ed] the totality-of-the-circumstances analysis that traditionally has informed probable-cause determinations.

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344 F.3d 1010, 2003 Daily Journal DAR 10861, 2003 Cal. Daily Op. Serv. 8629, 92 A.F.T.R.2d (RIA) 6213, 2003 U.S. App. LEXIS 19665, 2003 WL 22203736, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-alfred-gene-bridges-ca9-2003.