United States v. Boykoff

67 F. App'x 15
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Second Circuit
DecidedMay 21, 2003
DocketNo. 02-1435
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 67 F. App'x 15 (United States v. Boykoff) 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 v. Boykoff, 67 F. App'x 15 (2d Cir. 2003).

Opinion

SUMMARY ORDER

THIS SUMMARY ORDER WILL NOT BE PUBLISHED IN THE FEDERAL REPORTER AND MAY NOT BE CITED AS PRECEDENTIAL AUTHORITY TO THIS OR ANY OTHER COURT, BUT MAY BE CALLED TO THE ATTENTION OF THIS OR ANY OTHER COURT IN A SUBSEQUENT STAGE OF THIS CASE, IN A RELATED CASE, OR IN ANY CASE FOR PURPOSES OF COLLATERAL ESTOPPEL OR RES JUDICATA.

At a stated term of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, held at the United States Courthouse, Foley Square, in the City of New York, on the 21st day of May, two thousand and three.

UPON DUE CONSIDERATION, IT IS HEREBY ORDERED, ADJUDGED, AND DECREED that the judgment of the district court be, and it hereby is, affirmed.

Defendant-appellant Franklin Boykoff appeals from a July 19, 2002, judgment after a jury trial, convicting him on fifteen counts of tax fraud and related offenses under 18 U.S.C. § 871 (conspiracy to defraud the United States), 26 U.S.C. §§ 7201 (income tax evasion), 7206(1) (subscribing false returns), 7206(2) (aiding the preparation of false returns), 7212(a) (interfering with the administration of the Internal Revenue Code), and acquitting him on the remaining eight counts of aiding the preparation of false returns under 26 U.S.C. § 7206(2). Boykoff was sentenced to fifty-seven months’ imprisonment, three years’ supervised release, a $75,000 fine, prosecution costs of $28,610.79, a $950 special assessment, and restitution to the Internal Revenue Service (“IRS”) of $290,219. Boykoff makes numerous arguments of trial and sentencing errors, all of which are without merit.

[17]*17 The Exclusion of the Expert Psychiatric Testimony

Boykoff argues that thé district court erred by excluding expert psychiatric testimony diagnosing him with bipolar disorder and attention deficit disorder. Boykoff wanted to offer the testimony to show that he was disorganized, unfocused, and often late, consistent with his argument that any errors in the relevant tax returns were due to carelessness, not willfulness.

The district court excluded Zonana’s testimony for two reasons. See United States v. Boykoff, 186 F.Supp.2d 347, 348-50 (S.D.N.Y.2002) (“Boykoff III’). First, the court found that Boykoff failed to demonstrate an adequate link between the proffered testimony and the specific intent of the crimes under Fed.R.Evid. 702. Second, the court concluded that the evidence would be more misleading to the jury than probative under Fed.R.Evid. 403.

We review decisions concerning expert testimony for abuse of discretion, according “broad discretion” to the district court in deciding whether to admit or exclude expert testimony. United States v. Onumonu, 967 F.2d 782, 787 (2d Cir.1992) (internal quotation marks omitted). We also review evidentiary rulings for harmless error. United States v. Diallo, 40 F.3d 32, 35 (2d Cir.1994).

In this case, we need not reach the question of whether the district court abused its broad discretion by excluding the evidence under Rules 702 and 403 because we conclude that the error, if any, was harmless. A jury could not reasonably have found that the excluded expert testimony negated the specific intent of willfulness. As the district court found, the evidence of willfulness was overwhelming. Numerous witnesses — including Boykoffs longtime business partner, his clients, the investigating IRS agent — gave testimony indicating that Boykoff committed substantial numbers of willful acts over an extended period of time. In addition, the expert expressly asserted that he had not consulted the relevant tax returns and therefore could not link the errors in the returns to Boykoffs medical condition. Moreover, Boykoff failed to identify particular errors in the tax returns that suggest transposed numbers or random, careless mistakes — the kind of errors that could be caused by his attention-deficit disorder or bipolar disorder. Rather, the errors comprise additions of “round numbers” such as $10,000 and $50,000. Finally, we do not think that a jury would be persuaded that the asserted mental conditions could have been the cause of errors that only benefit-ted Boykoff and his clients. We therefore conclude with “fair assurance, after pondering all that happened without stripping the erroneous action from the whole, that the judgment was not substantially swayed by the error,” if any error was committed. See Kotteakos v. United States, 328 U.S. 750, 765, 66 S.Ct. 1239, 90 L.Ed. 1557 (1946).

The Appearance of Bias

The defendant argues that the district court gave the appearance of improper bias under United States v. Edwardo-Franco, 885 F.2d 1002 (2d Cir.1989). The district judge noted at several points that her family experience with attention-deficit disorder informed her view that attention-deficit disorder would not prevent someone from forming criminal intent. While those comments arguably may have been relevant to the question of the district court’s ability dispassionately to decide the admissibility of Dr. Zonana’s testimony, we do not reach the question of its admissibility, for the reasons discussed above. The comments do not otherwise bear on the court’s fairness and impartiality. This case is very different from, and therefore [18]*18not controlled by, Edwardo-Fmnco, where the court expressly disparaged people of the defendants’ nationality, Colombian. Id. at 1005. By contrast, the district court’s comments in this case did not indicate bias against any group of which Boykoff is a member.

The Admission of IRS Agent Dennehy’s Testimony

Boykoff argues that the district court erred by permitting the expert testimony of IRS Agent Dennehy, who testified about his analysis of the defendant’s improper reporting of certain personal expenses as business expenses. Boykoff contends that the agent’s testimony was improperly admitted as summary, rather than substantiated, evidence under United States v. Greenberg, 280 F.2d 472, 476-77 (1st Cir. 1960) (“Greenberg I”), and United States v. Greenberg, 295 F.2d 903, 908-09 (1st Cir.1961) (“Greenberg II”). But the crux of the First Circuit’s decision in the Green-berg cases was that the agent’s testimony was impermissibly based on hearsay. See Greenberg II, 295 F.2d at 908. This case does not present a similar hearsay problem. Boykoffs argument under the Greenberg cases therefore fails.

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Bluebook (online)
67 F. App'x 15, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-boykoff-ca2-2003.