United States v. Cancel-Lorenzana

28 F. Supp. 3d 138, 2014 WL 3563299, 2014 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 99619
CourtDistrict Court, D. Puerto Rico
DecidedJuly 21, 2014
DocketCriminal No. 12-413 (FAB)
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 28 F. Supp. 3d 138 (United States v. Cancel-Lorenzana) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, D. Puerto Rico primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
United States v. Cancel-Lorenzana, 28 F. Supp. 3d 138, 2014 WL 3563299, 2014 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 99619 (prd 2014).

Opinion

MEMORANDUM AND ORDER

BESOSA, District Judge.

Before the Court is defendant Annette Cancel-Lorenzana’s motion to sever pursuant to Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure 14(a)- (“Rule 14(a)”) (Docket No. 1506), and the United States’s opposition (Docket No. 1533). For the reasons articulated below, the Court DENIES defendant’s motion to sever.

I. Background

Count three of the superseding indictment charges Cancel-Lorenzana, along with her husband and co-defendant Carlos Arce-Lopez, with the commission of a conspiracy to commit money laundering in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1956(h).1 (Docket No. 518.) Defendants are accused of (1) making cash payments and money wire transfers to pay for controlled substances to be imported from the Dominican Republic to Puerto Rico; (2) co-mingling drug trafficking proceeds with monies derived from the retail sales of their business, Ferretería Arce; (3) making misrepresentations with respect to real estate purchases; and (4) structuring cash currency transactions with the intent to evade currency transaction reporting requirements. Id. Counts one and two charge twenty other defendants — including Arce-Lopez — with participating in a drug-trafficking conspiracy that involved smuggling cocaine through luggage checked into American Airlines flights from San Juan, Puerto Rico to locations along the East Coast of the United States between 1999 [140]*140and 2009. Id. Arce-Lopez is also charged with being a felon in possession of a firearm and possession of stolen firearms (Docket No. 615 and Criminal No. 12-736), and participating in the Dominican Republic drug-trafficking conspiracy mentioned above (Docket No. 732-1).2

The Court severed count three pursuant to Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure 8(b) (“Rule 8(b)”) on October 22, 2013 (Docket No. 935), and denied a motion to reconsider that decision on July 10, 2014 (Docket No. 1530)'. Several defendants charged in counts one and two (“Group One”) were tried in April, 2014. Two defendants—Arce-Lopez and Angel Torres Moreno—remain to be tried for counts one and two, while Arce-Lopez and Cancel-Lorenzana remain to be tried for count three. (See id. at p. 4.)

Cancel-Lorenzana contends that, should she be tried alongside Arce-Lopez, she faces a serious risk of prejudice because evidence of her husband’s extensive participation and leadership in uncharged criminal activity that would otherwise be inadmissible against her alone will be presented at trial and “spillover” into the jury’s assessment of her guilt. Consequently, Cancel-Lorenzana avers, jurors will be led to erroneously conclude that, merely because she is married to Arce-Lopez, she had knowledge of his drug-trafficking activities and is therefore guilty of count three. (Docket No. 1506.)

II. Discussion

A. Rule 14(a) Standard

As a general rule, defendants “who are indicted together should be tried together.” United States v. De Leon, 187 F.3d 60, 63 (1st Cir.1999) (internal citation omitted). Rule 14(a), however, permits trial courts to order severance or other relief where joinder of offenses or defendants, even while proper pursuant to Rule 8(b), “appears to prejudice a defendant or the government.” Fed.R.Crim.P. 14(a); Zafiro v. United States, 506 U.S. 534, 538, 113 S.Ct. 933, 122 L.Ed.2d 317 (1993). To overcome that presumption, a defendant seeking severance must make “a strong showing of evident prejudice.” United States v. O’Bryant, 998 F.2d 21, 25 (1st Cir.1993). A district court should grant severance pursuant to Rule 14(a) “only if there is a serious risk that a joint trial would compromise a specific trial right of one of the defendants, or prevent the jury from making a reliable judgment about guilt or innocence.” Zafiro, 506 U.S. at 539, 113 S.Ct. 933. That risk may arise where evidence that is not admissible or should not be considered against one defendant on his or her own is admitted against a co-defendant. Id.

The risk of spillover prejudice provides one possible ground for Rule 14(a) severance. “To prevail on such a claim, a defendant must prove prejudice so pervasive that a miscarriage of justice looms.” United States v. Pierro, 32 F.3d 611, 615 (1st Cir.1994) (internal citations omitted). Additionally, a defendant asserting spillover “must overcome the dual presumptions that a jury will capably sort through the evidence and will follow limiting instructions from the court” to consider each defendant’s guilt separately. United States v. Turner, 93 F.3d 276, 284 (7th Cir.1996). See also Zafiro, 506 U.S. at 540, 113 S.Ct. 933 (“[J]uries are presumed to follow there instructions.”) (internal quotation marks and citation omitted).

[141]*141B. Cancel-Lorenzana’s Allegations of Spillover Prejudice Do Not Warrant a Rule 14(a) Severance

The Court disagrees with defendant’s contention that evidence of Arce-Lopez’s involvement in separate drug-trafficking conspiracies would be inadmissible against Cancel-Lorenzana were she tried alone. Much of the evidence she labels as “prejudicial spillover” supports one of the elements of the money-laundering conspiracy charged in count three. The Money Laundering Control Act (“the Act”) provides, as relevant here:

(a)(1) Whoever, knowing that the property involved in a financial transaction represents the proceeds of some form of unlawful activity, conducts or attempts to conduct such a financial transaction which in fact involves the specified unlawful activity—
(A)(i) with the intent to promote the carrying on of specified unlawful activity; or ...
(B) knowing that the transaction is designed in whole or in part —
(i) to conceal or disguise the nature, the location, the source, the ownership, or the control of the proceeds of specified unlawful activity; or
(ii) to avoid a transaction reporting requirement under State or Federal law....

is guilty of money laundering. 18 U.S.C. § 1956(a)(1). Count three charges Cancel-Lorenzana and Arce-Lo-pez with engaging in money laundering with the intent to promote the drug-trafficking activities of Arce-Lopez, as well as to conceal and disguise drug-trafficking proceeds derived by him. (Docket No. 518 at p. 9.) In other words, Arce-Lopez’s drug-trafficking conduct constituted the “specified unlawful activity” (“SUA”) connected to the money-laundering violation.

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Bluebook (online)
28 F. Supp. 3d 138, 2014 WL 3563299, 2014 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 99619, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-cancel-lorenzana-prd-2014.