United States v. Johnson

225 F. Supp. 2d 1022, 2002 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 15063, 2002 WL 1880511
District Court, N.D. Iowa·Decided August 13, 2002·No. CR 00-3034-MWB, CR 01-3046-MWB·Published·Cited by 13 cases

Opinion

MEMORANDUM OPINION AND ORDER REGARDING GOVERNMENT’S AMENDMENT TO NOTICE OF INTENT TO USE EVIDENCE AND DEFENDANT’S MOTION TO SUPPRESS EVIDENCE

BENNETT, Chief Judge.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

I. INTRODUCTION.1031

A. Factual Background.1031

1. The first indictment and Johnson’s arrest.1031

2. The informant and his “deliberate elicitation” of incriminating statements .1032

3. The second indictment.1033

B. Framing Of The Suppression Issues.1034

1. The original notice of intent to use evidence.1034

2. The amended notice of intent to use evidence.1034

II. LEGAL ANALYSIS. 1035

A. Preliminary Issues. 1036

1. Nature of dispute and burden of proof 1036

2. “Ripeness” issues. 1037

a. Effect of consolidation of trials ... 1037

b. Effect of rulings on motions for a bill of particulars and to dismiss indictment . 00 CO © 1 — I

B. Scope Of The Right To Counsel Under Moulton.1039

C. The “Texas v. Cobb” or “Blockburger” Issue ..1040

1. Texas v. Cobb.1040

*1030 a. The question and the holding. 1040

b. The starting point: McNeil v. Wisconsin. 1041

c. Brewer and Moulton. 1041

d. Rejection of dire predictions. 1042

e. Blockburger and the definition of “offense specific”.. 1042

f. Application of the test. 1042

2. The Blockburger test. 1043

a. The same or separate offenses?. 1043

b. “Lesser-included” offenses . 1045

c. “Predicate” offenses. 1046

3. Application of Texas v. Cobb and Blockburger. 1048-

a. Johnson’s “discussion/interrogation” argument. 1048

b. Comparison of statutorg elements. 1050

i. Elements of charges in the ftrst indictment. 1050

ii. Elements of charges in the second indictment .. 1057

Hi. Are the offenses “the same” under Blockburger? 1060

c. Johnson’s reliance on factual relationships . 1060

d. Johnson’s reliance on Red Bird. 1062

e. “Predicate offense” analgsis. 1063

i. Is the § 371 conspiracy a predicate offense of the § 848 offenses?. 1063

ii. Are the § 1512 offenses predicate offenses of the § 848 offenses?. o

D. Johnson’s Additional Grounds For Suppression. o

III. CONCLUSION . .1068

This ruling involves the “second front” in a battle over whether the constitutional rights of a defendant accused of crimes carrying the federal death penalty were violated by a jailhouse informant’s acquisition of self-incriminating statements from the defendant. The “first front” opened with the government’s original notice of intent to use the informant’s evidence as to the seven charges in the original indictment against the defendant and her responsive motion to suppress that evidence on the basis of a “Massiah violation” 1 of her Sixth Amendment right to counsel. This court suppressed use of the jailhouse informant’s evidence as to the crimes charged in the first indictment, see United States v. Johnson, 196 F.Supp.2d 795 (N.D.Iowa 2002) (Johnson I), ending the battle on the “first front,” at least in this court. However, while the “Massiah issue” as to the charges in the first indictment was being litigated, the government effectively opened a “second front” by obtaining a second indictment against the defendant, which charged her with ten more death-penalty-eligible offenses, then filing an amended notice of its intent to use the jailhouse informant’s evidence as to those “new” charges as well. In its ruling suppressing the informant’s evidence as to the charges in the first indictment, the court left open for further briefing the question of whether that evidence should also be suppressed as to the charges in the second indictment. Battle was joined in earnest on that issue in a series of supplemental briefs, with a final skirmish by way of oral arguments, and the time is now ripe for the court to attempt to resolve that question.

*1031 I. INTRODUCTION

A. Factual Background 1. The first indictment and Johnson’s arrest

Defendant Angela Johnson is being held in the Linn County Jail pending trial on two separate indictments involving charges that grew out of a continuing investigation of the criminal conduct, including drug trafficking, of Johnson’s sometime boyfriend, Dustin Honken, and his associates. The first seven-count indictment against Johnson, in Case No. CR 00-3034-MWB, filed on July 26, 2000, charges her with five counts of aiding and abetting the murder of witnesses, one count of aiding and abetting the solicitation of the murder of witnesses, and one count of conspiracy to interfere with witnesses. 2

*1032 A warrant issued for Johnson’s arrest on these charges on the same day that the indictment was filed. Johnson was arrested on this federal warrant by officers with the Iowa Department of Criminal Investigation (DCI) on July 30, 2000, the following Sunday. At the request of the Assistant United States Attorney who had obtained the indictment against her, the arresting officers placed Johnson in the Benton County Jail, in Vinton, Iowa, instead of the Linn County Jail, which is just blocks from the federal courthouse in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, where Johnson would ordinarily have been taken. On Monday, July 31, 2000, Johnson was arraigned before a federal magistrate judge in Cedar Rapids. At the time of her arraignment, while represented by court-appointed counsel, Johnson entered a plea of not guilty to all of the charges then made against her. At the arraignment on July 31, 2000, a detention hearing was set for August 2, 2000, and the Clerk of Court was directed to appoint other counsel to represent Johnson in further proceedings.

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United States v. Johnson, 225 F. Supp. 2d 1022, 2002 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 15063, 2002 WL 1880511 (N.D. Iowa 2002).

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