United States v. Katzopoulos

CourtCourt of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit
DecidedFebruary 15, 2006
Docket04-6501
StatusPublished

This text of United States v. Katzopoulos (United States v. Katzopoulos) 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. Katzopoulos, (6th Cir. 2006).

Opinion

RECOMMENDED FOR FULL-TEXT PUBLICATION Pursuant to Sixth Circuit Rule 206 File Name: 06a0063p.06

UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE SIXTH CIRCUIT _________________

X Plaintiff-Appellee, - UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, - - - No. 04-6501 v. , > ANASTASIOS S. KATZOPOULOS, - Defendant-Appellant. - N Appeal from the United States District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee at Nashville. No. 03-00121—William J. Haynes, Jr., District Judge. Argued: November 30, 2005 Decided and Filed: February 15, 2006 Before: SILER and GRIFFIN, Circuit Judges; TARNOW, District Judge.* _________________ COUNSEL ARGUED: Jeffrey A. Rothman, DANIELS & ROTHMAN, Athens, Georgia, for Appellant. Byron M. Jones, ASSISTANT UNITED STATES ATTORNEY, Nashville, Tennessee, for Appellee. ON BRIEF: Jeffrey A. Rothman, DANIELS & ROTHMAN, Athens, Georgia, for Appellant. Byron M. Jones, ASSISTANT UNITED STATES ATTORNEY, Nashville, Tennessee, for Appellee. _________________ OPINION _________________ ARTHUR J. TARNOW, District Judge. Pursuant to a written plea agreement, Anastasios Katzopoulos pled guilty to ten counts of mail fraud and conspiracy to commit wire fraud for his involvement in an internet auction scheme. At the time of the plea agreement, the Federal Sentencing Guidelines constitutionality was in question as the Supreme Court had not decided United States v. Booker, 543 U.S. 220, 125 S.Ct. 738, 160 L.Ed.2d 621 (2005). The uncertain legal landscape caused the parties to enter into an agreement which required the district court to determine whether the Sentencing Guidelines were constitutional in light of Blakely v. Washington, 542 U.S. 596 (2004). If the district court found the Sentencing Guidelines to be unconstitutional, then

* The Honorable Arthur J. Tarnow, United States District Judge for the Eastern District of Michigan, sitting by designation.

1 No. 04-6501 United States v. Katzopoulos Page 2

Katzopoulos would waive his right to have a jury determine the enhancements and allow the district court to determine whether the enhancements existed beyond a reasonable doubt. At sentencing, the district court, over defense objections on grounds of both hearsay and a violation of his Sixth Amendment right to confrontation, admitted the hearsay testimony offered by the government’s sole witness at the hearing, United States Postal Inspector Jill Gregg. Relying in part on her testimony, the district court found that two sentencing enhancements applied: (1) the value of loss to the victims exceeded $200,000; and (2) that the number of victims exceeded fifty. Following the Sixth Circuit precedent at the time, the district court held the mandatory application of the Sentencing Guidelines to be constitutional and imposed a thirty-three month sentence with three years’ supervised release under the mandatory Sentencing Guidelines regime. Alternatively, the district court made a factual finding that the sentence enhancements were proven by the government beyond a reasonable doubt and therefore imposed an identical, alternative sentence as if the Guidelines were unconstitutional. Petitioner now challenges his sentence on direct appeal. Katzopolous contends that the district court erroneously enhanced his sentence by impermissibly relying on hearsay evidence in violation of his Sixth Amendment right to confrontation articulated in Crawford v. Washington, 541 U.S. 36 (2004). Katzopoulos also argues that the district court improperly enhanced his sentence in violation of his Sixth Amendment rights by relying on sentencing factors, not charged, admitted in open court or proven by the government beyond a reasonable doubt. For the reasons set forth below, we affirm Katzopoulos’ sentence. I. Facts In January 2002, Katzopoulos operated a business named the Surplus of Nashville which offered merchandise such as computers, cameras and electronic devices for sale through internet auction sites and booths at tradeshows. The ten named customers in the indictment were persons who were the highest bidders for particular merchandise. They were informed by Surplus of Nashville employees that their bids were accepted. The winning bidders would submit their payments to Appellant through one of three means, i.e., internet based payment, personal checks or telephone credit card transactions. After their payments were received, the customers were informed that their merchandise would ship from a warehouse in Nashville in approximately four to six weeks. The winning bidders never received their merchandise or a refund. Employees of Surplus of Nashville were unaware of Katzopoulos’ scheme, though there were suspicions. Whenever questions arose, Katzopoulos provided answers that would assuage their concerns. In February of 2002, postal authorities began investigating the Surplus of Nashville. In late March, a search warrant was executed at Katzopoulos’ recently abandoned apartment. As a result of the search, over a hundred and fifty refund checks drawn from two separate bank accounts were seized. Three months later, Katzopoulos was indicted on five counts of mail fraud and five counts of wire fraud. The indictment alleged that the Defendant had collected payments totaling $273,030.60 from approximately one hundred and thirty-eight customers from his scheme to defraud. II. Procedural History Pursuant to a plea agreement, on August 2, 2004, Katzopoulos entered a plea of guilty to all counts admitting to the facts alleged in the indictment. The plea agreement addressed the parties’ concerns over the Supreme Court’s anticipated decision in Booker by including this condition: No. 04-6501 United States v. Katzopoulos Page 3

The defendant acknowledges that he is aware of the recent decision of the Supreme Court in Blakely v. Washington, 2004 WL 1402696 (June 24, 2004). The defendant further acknowledges he has discussed Blakely with his attorney. The defendant also acknowledges the possibility of the application of its holding to his case. The defendant and the United States agree to submit to the Court the question of whether the federal sentencing guidelines are unconstitutional for the same reasons expressed in the Blakely decision. If this Court finds that the federal sentencing guidelines are unconstitutional for the reasons expressed in the Blakely decision, the defendant waives his right to have a jury determine the total amount of the loss and total number of victims attributable to the fraudulent scheme alleged in the indictment and both the defendant and the United States agree that the amount of the loss and the number of victims shall be determined by the Court applying the standard of proof beyond a reasonable doubt. At the sentencing hearing, the government intended to present the hearsay testimony of US Postal Inspector Jill Gregg to further establish the amount of loss. The defense objected to the testimony as inadmissible hearsay and on the ground that it violated Katzopoulos’ Sixth Amendment right to confrontation. After acknowledging that the total amount of loss would be difficult for the Government to prove without the hearsay testimony, the district court ruled that the testimony was admissible under Federal Rule of Evidence 807, the residual exception to the hearsay rule. Postal Inspector Gregg testified that Katzopoulos’ company had two bank accounts, one of which had total deposits of $130,240.22 and the other $142,790.50. Katzopoulos presented no evidence that he was involved in any legitimate business. As a result, the Court found that all of the money deposited into the accounts were the result of Katzopoulos’ illegal activity.

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United States v. Katzopoulos, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-katzopoulos-ca6-2006.