United States v. Goff

187 F. App'x 486
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit
DecidedJune 27, 2006
Docket06-3336
StatusUnpublished
Cited by8 cases

This text of 187 F. App'x 486 (United States v. Goff) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Sixth 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. Goff, 187 F. App'x 486 (6th Cir. 2006).

Opinions

GRIFFIN, Circuit Judge.

In 1998-1999, defendant-appellant Charles Goff, Jr., pled guilty to conspiracy to distribute and to possess with intent to distribute (“PWID”) cocaine and was sentenced. In October 2004, a federal grand jury issued an indictment against others that did not charge Goff but merely listed [488]*488him as a previously convicted coconspirator. In December 2004, the government filed a first superseding indictment charging Goff with conspiracy to distribute and to PWID over 150 kilograms of cocaine between September 27, 1996, and October 12, 2004 (“the instant indictment”). Goff moved to dismiss the instant indictment on statute of limitations, double jeopardy, and prosecutorial misconduct grounds, and the district court denied his motions.

Goff disclaims any intent to appeal the order denying his motion to dismiss due to the prosecution’s alleged abuse of the grand jury process (“the grand jury abuse motion”); he states that he is appealing only the double jeopardy ruling. On that issue, Goff renews his argument that the instant indictment violated his Fifth Amendment right not to be placed twice in jeopardy for the same offense because it sought to try him again for the same conspiracy to which he pled guilty in the 1998 case. The government responds that (1) any double jeopardy defect was mooted by the return of the second superseding indictment, and (2) the conspiracy charged in the instant indictment is sufficiently different from the previous case’s conspiracy to avoid a double jeopardy violation.

Contrary to Goffs disclaimer, his briefs do challenge the district court’s conclusion that the prosecution did not abuse the grand jury process. The government contends that (1) the order denying Goffs grand jury abuse motion is interlocutory, and (2) in any event, the district court did not abuse its discretion in concluding that the prosecution did not abuse the grand jury process.

For the reasons that follow, we affirm. The order denying Goffs double jeopardy motion is interlocutory but qualifies for the collateral order exception to the final judgment rule of 28 U.S.C. § 1291. On the merits, the district court did not clearly err in finding that the conspiracy charged in the instant indictment is not the same as the conspiracy to which Goff pled in the previous case. As to the order denying Goffs grand jury abuse motion, it does not qualify for the collateral order exception, so we lack jurisdiction to review it.

I.

Title 18 U.S.C. § 3281 gave the district court original jurisdiction, exclusive of state courts, “of all [prosecutions for alleged] offenses against the laws of the United States.”

As for our jurisdiction, 28 U.S.C. § 1291 gives “[t]he courts of appeals ... jurisdiction of appeals from all final decisions of the district courts of the United States.... ” The denial of a motion to dismiss an indictment on double jeopardy grounds is not final in the sense of terminating all criminal proceedings in the district court. Abney v. United States, 431 U.S. 651, 657, 97 S.Ct. 2034, 52 L.Ed.2d 651 (1977).

Nonetheless, such an order comes within the “collateral order” exception to § 1291 announced by Cohen v. Beneficial Indus. Loan Corp., 337 U.S. 541, 69 S.Ct. 1221, 93 L.Ed. 1528 (1949), because the right not to stand trial twice for the same offense “cannot be effectively vindicated” after trial. Mitchell v. Forsyth, 472 U.S. 511, 525, 105 S.Ct. 2806, 86 L.Ed.2d 411 (1985) (discussing Abney, 431 U.S. at 658-662, 97 S.Ct. 2034). See also Will v. Hallock, — U.S. -, -, 126 S.Ct. 952, 958, 163 L.Ed.2d 836 (2006) (“[A] criminal defendant may collaterally appeal an adverse ruling on a defense of double jeopardy ....”) (citing Abney, 431 U.S. at 660, 97 S.Ct. 2034); Kelly v. Great Seneca Fin. Corp., 447 F.3d 944 (6th Cir.2006).

[489]*489II.

Generally, we review de novo the denial of a motion to dismiss an indictment on double jeopardy grounds. United States v. DeCarlo, 434 F.3d 447, 452 (6th Cir.2006) (citation omitted). Our review is more deferential, however, when the issue is whether an indictment charged the same conspiracy for which a defendant was previously tried. The finding that multiple conspiracies existed can be set aside only if it is clearly erroneous. In re Grand Jury Proceedings, 797 F.2d 1377, 1380-81 (6th Cir.1986) (citation omitted); United States v. Benton, 852 F.2d 1456, 1464 (6th Cir.1988). Clear error exists only where we are “left with the definite and firm conviction that a mistake has been committed.” United States v. Monumental Life Ins. Co., 440 F.3d 729, 732 (6th Cir.2006).

III.

In October 1996, a grand jury indicted Goff and three others — his father Charles Goff, Sr., Juan Carlos Marin-Avila (“Avila”), and Mario Dejesus Calderon-Valenzuela (“Valenzuela”) — in United States v. Marin-Avila, No. 03-CR-96-097 (S.D.Ohio). Count 1 charged all four defendants with conspiring to distribute and to PWID cocaine in violation of 21 U.S.C. § 841(a)(1) & (b)(1)(A) and alleged that Goff accepted delivery of cocaine intended for further delivery. Count 4 charged Goff with knowingly and intentionally attempting to PWID about 39 kg. of cocaine on September 25, 1996, in violation of 21 U.S.C. §§ 846 & 841(b)(1)(A). In September 1998, Goff pled guilty to Count 1 (conspiracy) and the U.S. Attorney dismissed Count 4 (attempted PWID). In March 1999, the district court sentenced Goff to 188 months in prison.

Over five years later, in October 2004, the instant case began with an indictment that did not charge Goff but listed him as a previously convicted coconspirator (“the first indictment”). The first indictment alleged in pertinent part that: Goff was an intended recipient of cocaine seized by the Ohio State Police on September 25, 1996; Goff delivered about ten kilograms of cocaine to defendant Earl Marshall between July 1998 and March 1999; and, Goff bought a Plymouth Prowler vehicle with about $45,000 allegedly obtained through illegal drug trafficking.

About two months later, in December 2004, the government filed a first superseding indictment charging Goff in the first count with conspiracy to distribute and to PWID over 150 kilograms of cocaine in violation of 21 U.S.C. §§ 841(a)(1) and (b)(1)(A) between September 27, 1996, and October 12, 2004 (“the instant indictment”).

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

United States v. Fitzsimons
District of Columbia, 2022
United States v. Adam Carson
Sixth Circuit, 2019
United States v. Dominick Andrews
857 F.3d 734 (Sixth Circuit, 2017)
Henney v. Rumfield (In Re Henney)
451 B.R. 724 (W.D. Michigan, 2011)
United States v. Charles Goff, Jr.
400 F. App'x 1 (Sixth Circuit, 2010)
Wolters v. FLAGSTAR BANK FSB
429 B.R. 587 (W.D. Michigan, 2010)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
187 F. App'x 486, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-goff-ca6-2006.