United States v. Haji Bagcho

923 F.3d 1131
CourtCourt of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit
DecidedMay 14, 2019
Docket12-3042; C/w 17-3009, 17-3069
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 923 F.3d 1131 (United States v. Haji Bagcho) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the D.C. 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. Haji Bagcho, 923 F.3d 1131 (D.C. Cir. 2019).

Opinions

Concurring opinion by Circuit Judge Millett.

Rogers, Circuit Judge:

In 2012, Haji Bagcho was convicted by a jury of one count of conspiracy to distribute heroin, one count of distributing heroin, and one count of trafficking in narcotics while funding terrorism, and sentenced to life imprisonment. As a result of newly discovered evidence of a Brady violation, the district court vacated Bagcho's narcoterrorism conviction and resentenced him to concurrent terms of 300 months on the two remaining convictions. Of Bagcho's three contentions on appeal, only one requires further consideration by the district court.

First, Bagcho contends that by denying his motion for a continuance the district court prevented him from searching the jury selection records in hopes of finding evidence that his jury was not drawn from a fair cross-section of District of Columbia residents in violation of his rights under the Jury Selection and Service Act, 28 U.S.C. §§ 1861 - 67. We find no abuse of discretion by the district court. The denial did not present a legal bar to prevent Bagcho from accessing these records. The trial record shows that the district court, having stayed voir dire to allow Bagcho's counsel to question the head of the jury office, denied his request for a further stay absent evidence of a "substantial failure to comply" with the Act, 28 U.S.C. § 1867(d).

Second, Bagcho contends there was insufficient evidence, even under a preponderance standard, to support a two-point sentencing enhancement for possession of a firearm during a drug offense. On the current record, we agree that there was insufficient evidence Bagcho constructively *1134possessed the AK-47 found in his absence in his compound where others lived and worked during an April 2006 raid by law enforcement.

Third, Bagcho contends that his sentence was unconstitutional because the district court considered uncharged and acquitted conduct in calculating his base offense level. He acknowledges he cannot prevail under circuit precedent.

Accordingly, we remand the case for resentencing but otherwise affirm the judgment of conviction.

I.

Viewing the evidence most favorably to the government as we must, Jackson v. Virginia , 443 U.S. 307, 319, 99 S.Ct. 2781, 61 L.Ed.2d 560 (1979), Haji Bagcho ran a large heroin trafficking operation in Afghanistan. In 2005, he came under investigation by the Drug Enforcement Administration ("DEA") and Afghan authorities. During that investigation, Afghan and British forces on April 20, 2006, raided a compound owned by Bagcho in Marco Village in the Nangarhar province of Afghanistan looking for evidence of drug trafficking. The compound comprised several structures including a main residence with ten rooms, a garage, a storage area, and a guesthouse. DEA Agent Gregory Brittain, who was present at the compound as an advisor and mentor, saw Afghan officers bring items out of the compound; one item was "an AK-47 rifle with magazines." Trial Tr. 37 (Feb. 29, 2012). Bagcho was not at the compound at the time of the raid.

As part of the investigation, the DEA enlisted Afghan officials to pose as corrupt police officials, who engaged Bagcho in discussions about his drug trafficking activities and to whom Bagcho offered bribes in exchange for early warning of raids planned against his operation. Other undercover informants, including Afghan law enforcement and civilians, were engaged to conduct controlled drug buys from Bagcho and to record conversations with Bagcho discussing heroin purchases.

In November 2006, Bagcho was indicted for drug trafficking by a United States federal grand jury. Upon his arrest in May 2009, he was extradited to the United States. A grand jury returned a four-count superseding indictment in January 2010, charging him with (1) conspiracy to distribute one kilogram or more of heroin for import into the United States; (2) distribution of one kilogram or more of heroin on September 25, 2006 for import into the United States; (3) distribution of one kilogram or more of heroin on May 21, 2008 for import into the United States; and (4) distribution of one kilogram or more of heroin while funding terrorism. At trial, the jury deadlocked on all counts, and the district court declared a mistrial.

In February 2012, during voir dire for Bagcho's second trial, his counsel, upon seeing the members of the venire, informed the district court of his concern there were a disproportionately low number of African Americans. Only twelve of the prospective jurors were African American, compared to twenty-six whites and two people of unknown ethnicity. Also twenty-nine of the prospective jurors resided in Northwest D.C., while only three resided in Southeast D.C. Since African Americans represented roughly half of D.C. residents at the time, Bagcho's counsel suggested that African Americans may have been systematically excluded from the jury pool in violation of Bagcho's right to be tried by a jury drawn from a fair cross-section of the community in which the court is located. The district court agreed to delay the start of the jury selection to allow Bagcho's counsel to question the head of the jury office, Regina Larry, about the process by which members of *1135the venire had been selected from the broader jury pool of D.C. residents.

Ms. Larry explained that the jury pool is drawn from a master pool of more than 700,000 D.C. residents based on voter, tax, and Department of Motor Vehicles records. She testified that she created the jury pool for Bagcho's trial by mailing a prescreening form to 1,200 prospective jurors whose names were randomly selected from the master pool. The jury office then reviewed the responses, disqualifying some residents and granting requests of others to be deferred or excused. Her testimony revealed no evidence that African Americans or any other group had been systematically excluded from the jury pool. Bagcho's counsel nonetheless requested "a continuance to go to the jury office to go through the statistics," Tr. 38 (Feb. 22, 2012), explaining he wanted to "take a look at statistics" in order to determine whether there was a "fundamental flaw" in D.C.'s process of summoning potential jurors, id. at 40. The district court denied his request, ruling Bagcho had not met his "burden, as the moving party, [to] demonstrate there was a substantial failure to comply with" the Jury Selection and Service Act. Id. at 49.

The jury found Bagcho guilty on all counts except Count III, and the district court sentenced him to concurrent terms of life imprisonment on each of the three remaining counts.

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Bluebook (online)
923 F.3d 1131, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-haji-bagcho-cadc-2019.