United States v. Crook

213 F. App'x 754
Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit·Decided January 25, 2007·No. No. 05-7106·Published·Cited by 1 cases

Opinion

ORDER AND JUDGMENT*

WADE BRORBY. United States Circuit Judge.

The district court dismissed fifteen counts of theft of public money, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 641, against Appellant Vicky L. Crook following a hung jury and prior to a retrial on the same offenses; thereafter, a grand jury indicted Ms. Crook on one count of theft of funds by an agent of an organization receiving federal program funds, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 666. Following the district court’s denial of her double jeopardy claim, a jury convicted Ms. Crook of violating § 666, and the district court sentenced her to eighteen months imprisonment, thirty-six months supervised release, and restitution in the amount of $38,400.22. Ms. Crook appeals her conviction and sentence, contending: (1) the district court erred in denying her double jeopardy claim, causing her to be tried twice for the same offense in violation of the Fifth Amendment; (2) insufficient evidence supported the jury verdict; and (3) her sentence is improper under the Supreme Court’s decision in United States v. Booker, 543 U.S. 220, 125 S.Ct. 738, 160 L.Ed.2d 621 (2005). We exercise jurisdiction pursuant to 18 U.S.C. § 3742(a) and 28 U.S.C. § 1291 and affirm Ms. Crook’s conviction and sentence.

I. Factual Background

From July 1994 to March 2001, Ms. Crook was employed as the executive director of the Stilwell Housing Authority, a federally-funded organization providing low income housing for needy families in the Stilwell, Oklahoma area.1 Both Ms. [756] Crook and her secretary received rental payments from housing authority tenants, after which they placed the payments in a bank bag, issued the tenants a receipt, and kept copies of the receipts for office use. At the end of the day, Ms. Crook counted the payments, reconciled the receipts, made out a deposit slip, and took the daily deposit to the bank. Ms. Crook’s secretary never handled or delivered the bank deposits.

In 2000, a company performing fee accounting services for the Stilwell Housing Authority discovered a discrepancy between the amounts of money collected, as evidenced by the receipts, and the amounts deposited in the bank. In December 2000, another entity took over the fee accounting services and subsequently reported to the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) (the federal agency providing federal funding to the Stilwell Housing Authority) that approximately $50,000 was missing in deposits from the housing authority and someone was “lapping” payments by using current rental payments to cover earlier shortages. Thereafter, a certified public accountant determined money from the housing authority rental payments was not being deposited into the bank. A HUD employee reviewing the matter confirmed someone was improperly “lapping” rental payments by taking money received in the current month to pay money which was due in previous months.

A forensic auditor with the HUD Inspector General’s Office conducted an audit which revealed a consistent pattern of deposits which were less than the rent payments made to the Stilwell Housing Authority. In addition, an investigation by a special agent with the HUD Inspector General’s Office revealed the same person stole the money because the method of theft and cover-up was the same. In addition, discrepancies associated with the missing deposits continued after Ms. Crook’s secretary left employment with the housing authority. However, when Ms. Crook was questioned by different individuals about the missing funds, she claimed her secretary, whom she fired, was culpable for the missing money. At trial, several bank employees confirmed Ms. Crook was the only person who made deposits on behalf of the Stilwell Housing Authority. Additionally, through testimony of the government’s HUD witnesses, certain records were admitted into evidence at trial, including various banking records, rental receipts, over 100 deposit slips, and a prepared schedule and spread sheet documenting Ms. Crook’s suspect transactions with regard to the rental monies.

II. Procedural Background

A grand jury indicted Ms. Crook on fifteen counts of embezzlement or theft of government funds in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 641. A jury trial commenced which concluded -with a hung jury. After the case was reset for trial, Ms. Crook filed a motion for dismissal from prosecution on [757] grounds the government failed to establish the money taken belonged to the federal government. Following the government’s response, the district court entered an order granting Ms. Crook’s motion and dismissing the criminal case against her based on its determination no evidence offered at trial established the theft of tenant payments involved government funds.

A few months later, a grand jury indicted Ms. Crook on one count of violating 18 U.S.C. § 666 for theft of funds by an agent of an organization receiving federal program funds. Ms. Crook filed a motion for dismissal on double jeopardy grounds. The district court denied Ms. Crook’s motion, and thereafter the trial commenced, with a jury finding Ms. Crook guilty.

Prior to and at sentencing, Ms. Crook objected to the probation officer’s recommendation in the presentence report that the district court apply a six-level enhancement to her sentence under United States Sentencing Guidelines Manual (“Guidelines” or “U.S.S.G.”) § 2B1.1(b)(1)(D), for theft of at least $30,000 but less than $70,000. Ms. Crook objected to the enhancement on grounds the jury did not make a finding beyond a reasonable doubt on the amount taken. The district court overruled Ms. Crook’s objection, applied the six-level enhancement in calculating her Guidelines range at fifteen to twenty-one months imprisonment, and sentenced her to eighteen months imprisonment. This appeal followed.

III. Discussion

A. Double Jeopardy Claim

The crux of Ms. Crook’s appeal rests on her double jeopardy claim, in which she argues “[t]he district court incorrectly denied [her] double jeopardy argument arid improperly permitted [her] to be tried twice for the same offence.” Apt. Br. at

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United States v. Crook, 213 F. App'x 754 (10th Cir. 2007).

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