United States v. Gregory Phillips

370 F. App'x 610
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit
DecidedMarch 22, 2010
Docket08-5431
StatusUnpublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 370 F. App'x 610 (United States v. Gregory Phillips) 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. Gregory Phillips, 370 F. App'x 610 (6th Cir. 2010).

Opinion

*612 TARNOW, District Judge.

In the underlying case, Gregory Phillips (“Phillips”) pleaded guilty to one count of engaging in illicit sexual conduct in foreign places in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 2423(c). The district court sentenced Phillips to 37 months’ imprisonment, to be followed by a lifetime term of supervised release. Phillips completed his prison sentence and began serving his supervised release, but on February 20, 2008, Phillips’ probation officer sought and obtained a warrant for Phillips’ arrest based on allegations that Phillips had violated several standard and special conditions of supervision. The district court conducted an evidentiary hearing, took testimony from the probation officer, received evidence from counsel, and ultimately concluded that Phillips had violated the terms of his supervised release as alleged. At the sentencing phase, the court revoked Phillips’ release and sentenced him to 30 months’ imprisonment, to be followed by an additional 20-year period of supervised release that included newly imposed conditions. Phillips objected that his sentence exceeded the applicable guidelines range, and filed a timely notice of appeal.

For the reasons stated below, we affirm the district court and deny Phillips’ appeal.

BACKGROUND

In August, 2001, Phillips traveled from the United States to Thailand to begin employment as a teacher at the American School of Bangkok, 1 where he taught until October, 2004. Between approximately May, 2004, and October 29, 2004, Phillips resided with a Thai child (“Ong”), who was between 13 and 16 years of age during that period of time. 2 While residing with the child, Phillips repeatedly engaged Ong in illicit sexual conduct and contact as defined by statute.

The record is not entirely clear as to the circumstances of Phillips’ departure from Thailand, but during the revocation hearing, Phillips’ probation officer testified that Phillips had reported “[leaving] Thailand in 2004 after the Thai police had begun searching for him for what is the basis of the instant offense.” Phillips reported contacting a man he knew as “Dylan Thomas,” 3 whom Phillips had met while using a “BoyChat/Boy Lover” message board. At one time, “Thomas” had been the webmaster. When Phillips asked “Thomas” for *613 help, “Thomas” invited Phillips to come to Mexico, 4 where Phillips then lived with “Thomas” for approximately 30 days. According to the probation officer’s testimony, Phillips later “indicated that he knew that [“Thomas”] was someone who engaged in sex with young boys because there were little boys in and out of there all the time,” and that although Phillips never witnessed any sexual interactions, he knew “Thomas” was having sex with the boys because, “[w]ell, if you live with somebody, you know what they’re doing.” “After things calmed down,” Phillips returned to the United States. “Thomas” had asked Phillips to check on the status of “Thomas’ ” own outstanding warrants once Phillips returned to this country.

On December 7, 2004, Phillips was indicted on one count of engaging in illicit sexual conduct in foreign places in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 2423(c), and he was arrested the next day. On September 28, 2005, Phillips pled guilty to the single count with which he was charged. The district court sentenced Phillips to 37 months’ imprisonment, to be followed by a lifetime term of supervised release. On August 15, 2007, Phillips completed his prison sentence and began serving his supervised release.

According to his probation officer, Phil- ■ lips seemed to do well during the first few months of his supervision and had begun working as a paralegal in a Chattanooga law firm. However, on December 11, 2007, the probation officer conducted an unannounced workplace visit, and learned that Phillips had been using his workplace computer to communicate with a personal friend in Thailand. Phillips said that, “to his knowledge,” his friend was not a sex offender, 5 and he specifically denied having had any contact with Ong, his victim. According to the probation officer, Phillips “became agitated” after nearly an hour of discussion, exclaimed that he had abided by the conditions of his release, and asked the probation officer to “put it in writing.” Indeed, the next day, the probation officer sent a letter to Phillips, “indicating [Phillips] was doing fine.” The probation officer later testified that he sent the letter despite his reservations, because “[w]hen [he] left out of there on December 11th, [he] had a lot of questions [but he] had no evidence.”

On December 19, 2007, the probation officer received a phone call from a Chattanooga-based FBI agent, who had been contacted by an attorney reporting that “Mr. Phillips had contacted [the attorney] about providing information on a Top Ten FBI fugitive who had been out of the country for years that they were looking for.” The probation officer “advised [the FBI agent] that that was news to [him] because [he] had seen Mr. Phillips just about a week before that and that he had adamantly denied any contact with anybody he knew to be a felon.” The FBI agent reported that the name of the fugitive was Jon Schillaci (“Schillaci”). The attorney had informed the FBI agent that Phillips was conditionally willing to provide information on Schillaci’s whereabouts in Mexico, provided that Phillips would receive the posted reward money and that he *614 would be taken off of supervised release. The probation officer testified that, as soon as the FBI agent disclosed this information, it was clear that Phillips had committed violations of his terms of supervision, because only eight days beforehand Phillips had adamantly maintained that he had not had contact with anybody he knew to be a felon.

The next day, December 20, 2007, Phillips was scheduled to appear at the Probation Office for a random drug screening. When Phillips reported to the office, the probation officer questioned him again on whether his friend (“Leo”) in Thailand was a felon or a sex offender, and Phillips again said no. The probation officer instructed Phillips to e-mail Leo and ask explicitly if he was a convicted felon. The officer then advised Phillips of the federal law that makes it a crime to lie to a federal law enforcement officer during the execution of his or her duties, and repeated the question: “[s]ince your release have you had any contact with anybody that you know to be a felon?” Phillips “adamantly denied that he had,” and did not mention. Schillaci. Phillips was advised that he needed to disclose his “polygraph risk list,” 6 which he submitted on December 23 along with a letter in which he offered to have no more contact with Leo.

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

Related

State v. Liuzzo
2014 Ohio 3030 (Ohio Court of Appeals, 2014)
United States v. Brian Smith
564 F. App'x 200 (Sixth Circuit, 2014)
Gregory Phillips v. United States
734 F.3d 573 (Sixth Circuit, 2013)
United States v. Timothy Lantz
443 F. App'x 135 (Sixth Circuit, 2011)
Phillips v. United States
176 L. Ed. 2d 1259 (Supreme Court, 2010)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
370 F. App'x 610, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-gregory-phillips-ca6-2010.