United States v. Charles Danny Harris

376 F.3d 1282, 2004 U.S. App. LEXIS 14576, 2004 WL 1574524
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit
DecidedJuly 15, 2004
Docket03-12804
StatusPublished
Cited by34 cases

This text of 376 F.3d 1282 (United States v. Charles Danny Harris) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Eleventh 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. Charles Danny Harris, 376 F.3d 1282, 2004 U.S. App. LEXIS 14576, 2004 WL 1574524 (11th Cir. 2004).

Opinion

DUBINA, Circuit Judge:

Appellant Charles Danny Harris appeals his conviction and sentence for fraudulent use of a Social Security number with intent to deceive, in violation of 42 U.S.C. § 408(a)(7)(B). Harris contends that his prosecution violated the terms of a pretrial diversion agreement, as well as his right to a speedy trial under the Speedy Trial Act and the Sixth Amendment, and, in any event, that the government offered insufficient evidence to sustain his conviction. For the reasons that follow, we affirm.

I. BACKGROUND

On January 5, 1997, Homewood, Alabama Police Sergeant Mara Sirles stopped a vehicle driven by Harris for emitting excessive and annoying smoke. When Sirles asked for Harris’s driver’s license, Harris instead produced three alternate forms of identification: an international driving permit, a government rate card, and an identification card, all of which were typewritten and appeared to be false. All the forms of identification contained Harris’s photograph, and two of them listed a Social Security number that was not assigned to Harris. The government rate card contained an obvious typographical error.

Wade Green, another Homewood police officer, arrived at the scene to assist Sirles. Green asked Harris if the information on the identification cards was correct, and Harris responded affirmatively. After Harris was arrested at the scene, on unrelated charges, Green inquired further as to whom the Social Security number on the identification cards belonged. Harris responded that “[h]e would rather not say. The old boy it belongs to in Arkansas wouldn’t appreciate it or wouldn’t appreciate knowing that I was using it.” [R. Vol. 3 at 89, 147; see also R. Vol. 1, Tab 15, Ex.] Ultimately, Green discovered that the Social Security number on the cards belonged to then-President William Jefferson Clinton.

Harris later admitted that he had obtained blank identification cards from a Louisiana mail-order company after his Tennessee driver’s license had been revoked for failure to pay numerous traffic citations. Harris laminated the cards after typing in his personal information as indicated, along with President Clinton’s Social Security number.

On January 15, 1997, a grand jury returned a one count indictment charging Harris with knowingly, willfully, and falsely representing to law enforcement that the Social Security number printed on the identification cards was the Social Security number assigned to him while knowing that it was not, in violation of 42 U.S.C. *1285 § 408(a)(7)(B). At his arraignment on January 23, 1997, Harris pled not guilty.

On January 28, 1997, Harris filed two motions to suppress evidence. 1 On February 27, 1997, while Harris’s pretrial motions were still pending, the government and Harris entered into an “Agreement for Pretrial Diversion” (the “Agreement”), wherein the government agreed to defer prosecution for 12 months, provided that Harris fulfilled all of the “Conditions of Pretrial Diversion” enumerated in the Agreement. [R. Vol. 1, Tab 20, Ex.] The first of these conditions provided: “You shall not violate any law (federal, state and local). You shall immediately contact your pretrial diversion supervisor if arrested and/or questioned by any law enforcement officer.”

The Agreement further stated, in two separate provisions:

Should you violate the conditions of this supervision, the United States Attorney may revoke or modify any conditions of this pretrial diversion program or change the period of supervision which shall in no case exceed 12 months.... The United States Attorney may at any time within the period of your supervision initiate prosecution for these offenses should you violate the conditions of this supervision and will furnish you with notice specifying the conditions of your program which you have violated.
If, upon completion of your period of supervision, a pretrial diversion report is received to the effect that you have complied with all the rules, regulations and conditions above mentioned, no prosecution for the offenses ... will be instituted in this District, and any indictment or information will be discharged.

In the Agreement, Harris also specifically agreed that

any delay from the date of this Agreement to the date of the initiation of prosecution, as provided for in the terms as expressed herein, shall be deemed to be a necessary delay at my request and I waive any defense to such prosecution on the ground that such delay operated to deny my rights under 48(b) of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure and the Sixth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States to a speedy trial....

In addition, the district court granted the government’s motion to treat the diversion period as excludable time for purposes of the Speedy Trial Act.

On February 10, 1998, the government sent Harris a letter informing him that it had learned that Harris was arrested in September 1997 and charged with multiple drug, alcohol, and traffic offenses. The government gave Harris 14 days to respond, and informed him that if he failed to timely respond, the government would request that his ease be placed back on the trial calendar.

Harris failed to timely respond to the letter, and the government moved to proceed to trial on March 20, 1998, approximately 23 days after the 12-month period of supervision ended. On September 21, 1998, the district court granted the government’s motion and set December 7, 1998, as the trial date.

On December 7, 1998, Harris filed a motion to dismiss the indictment which the district court orally denied the following day after a hearing on the matter. Then, *1286 following a hearing on December.9, 1998, the district court denied Harris’s still-pending suppression motions, which had been filed on January 28, 1997, and deferred until trial. On December 14, 1998, the district , court conducted voir dire and commenced trial. A jury found Harris guilty on December 15,1998.

On December 22, 1998, Harris filed a motion for judgment, of acquittal. This motion remained pending for more than three years. In the meantime, the district court sentenced Harris to seven months imprisonment, followed by three years of supervised release. Harris filed a timely notice of appeal, which the district court held pending entry of judgment. During this period, Harris remained free on bond.

On April 11, 2002, the district court denied Harris’s motion for judgment of acquittal. In a footnote in its order, the district court commented: “To say that this case fell through the cracks is a gross understatement. The court has no excuse and makes none for its failure to promptly decide this matter.” [R. Vol. 1, Tab 43 at 1 n.l.] The district court modified Harris’s sentence, in its own words, “to slightly ameliorate the harm done to defendant by the court’s inexcusable delay.” [R. Vol.

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Bluebook (online)
376 F.3d 1282, 2004 U.S. App. LEXIS 14576, 2004 WL 1574524, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-charles-danny-harris-ca11-2004.