United States v. Krug

198 F. Supp. 3d 235, 2016 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 98106, 2016 WL 4009530
CourtDistrict Court, W.D. New York
DecidedJuly 27, 2016
Docket15-CR-157-A
StatusPublished

This text of 198 F. Supp. 3d 235 (United States v. Krug) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, W.D. New York primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
United States v. Krug, 198 F. Supp. 3d 235, 2016 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 98106, 2016 WL 4009530 (W.D.N.Y. 2016).

Opinion

DECISION AND ORDER

HONORABLE RICHARD J. ARCARA, UNITED STATES DISTRICT JUDGE

The Defendant in this case is a Buffalo Police Officer who is alleged to have used excessive force against three individuals on three different occasions over a five-year period. The Defendant is also accused of making a false statement about one of those incidents in a Buffalo Police Department use-of-force form. The case is before the Court on several issues: (1) the Defendant’s objections to Magistrate Judge Schroeder’s Report and Recommendation, which recommends denying each of the Defendant’s motions to dismiss; (2) the Defendant’s motion for a hearing pursuant to Kastigar v. United States, 406 U.S. 441, 92 S.Ct. 1653, 32 L.Ed.2d 212 (1972), based on statements the Defendant made to the Buffalo Police Department’s Professional Standards Division; and (3) the Defendant’s motion for severance.

The Court adopts Magistrate Judge Schroeder’s Report and Recommendation in its entirety. The Court also concludes that the Defendant is entitled to a hearing pursuant to Kastigar v. United States. For the reasons explained below, the Court will hold a Kastigar hearing either during trial and/or after trial. Finally, the Court reserves decision on the Defendant’s severance motion. Closer to trial, the Court will decide, based on the factors discussed below, whether to sever trial of Counts 1, 2, and 3 from trial of Count 4.

BACKGROUND1

In the early-morning hours of November 27, 2014—Thanksgiving day—the Defendant was working in the entertainment district around Chippewa Street in downtown Buffalo. A local television news cameraman, who was in the area to film Thanksgiving-eve festivities, filmed what the Defendant refers to as a “physical confrontation” between him and D.F. Docket No. 14-1 at 1. The Defendant contends that the video of that incident “brought a wave of negative media attention to the Buffalo Police Department and Officer Krug” at a time when “there was a movement across the country to prosecute law enforcement for use of excessive force.” Id.

In December 2014, after the video was broadcast on local news stations, the Buffalo Police Department referred the matter to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). Docket No. 17 at 9. The FBI, in turn, presented the matter to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of New York. And the U.S. Attorney’s Office then presented the matter to a grand jury impaneled in May 2015. As part of its investigation, the grand jury subpoenaed the Defendant’s Buffalo Police Department personnel file. According to the Government, the file contained, among other things, two “civilian complaints against [the Defendant] which alleged excessive force.” Id. The first of those incidents al[240]*240legedly occurred on August 29, 2010, and the second allegedly occurred several months later, on February 2, 2011.

The Defendant’s motions to dismiss the superseding indictment are based largely on the manner and sequence in which the Government charged him with each of the three alleged excessive force incidents. On August 18, 2015, while the grand jury was still reviewing the 2014 incident, the Government filed a criminal complaint charging that incident violated 18 U.S.C. § 242. Then, nine days later, the grand jury handed up the first indictment in this case. That two-count indictment charged the Defendant with (1) a § 242 violation based on the 2010 incident, and (2) falsification of a record in a federal matter, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1519, based on the allegation that the Defendant made a false statement regarding the 2010 incident in a Buffalo Police Department use-of-force form.

One week later, on September 3, 2015, the grand jury handed up a superseding indictment, which is now the operative charging instrument in this case. The superseding indictment contains the same charges as the first indictment, but it also includes two additional § 242 allegations: one based on the 2014 incident, and one based on the 2011 incident. Thus, the Defendant is now charged in a four-count superseding indictment alleging falsification of a record in a federal matter and three § 242 violations: one each for the 2010, 2011, and 2014 incidents.

DISCUSSION

1. The Defendant’s objections to Magistrate Judge Schroeder’s Report and Recommendation

The Defendant objects to Magistrate Judge Schroeder’s recommendations to deny all three of the Defendant’s motions to dismiss. The Court therefore reviews Magistrate Judge Schroeder’s recommendations de novo. See 28 U.S.C. § 636(b)(1).

A. Motion to dismiss the superseding indictment for allegedly prejudicial pre-indictment delay

The Defendant first moves to dismiss the superseding indictment based on the Government’s allegedly prejudicial delay in charging him with the 2010 and 2011 excessive force incidents. The Defendant argues that the Government knew about those incidents at or around the time they occurred, but that “it was only when the government was trying to strengthen” its case for the 2014 incident “that [it] decided to prosecute both” the 2010 and 2011 incidents. Docket No. 26 at 7-8. According to the Defendant, this delay—which, in the case of the 2010 incident, was just two days short of the five-year statute of limitations—“gave the government a significant tactical advantage and unfairly prejudiced Officer Krug.” Id. at 8.

It is well settled that “statutes of limitations provide the primary protection against delay” in indictment, “with the Due Process Clause [acting] as a safeguard against fundamentally unfair prosecutorial conduct.” Betterman v. Montana, — U.S. —, 136 S.Ct. 1609, 1613, 194 L.Ed.2d 723 (2016). See also United States v. Lovasco, 431 U.S. 783, 789, 97 S.Ct. 2044, 52 L.Ed.2d 752 (1977) (noting that statutes of limitations “provide ‘the primary guarantee against bringing overly stale criminal charges,’ ... and that the Due Process Clause has a limited role to play in protecting against oppressive delay”) (quoting United States v. Marion, 404 U.S. 307, 322, 92 S.Ct. 455, 30 L.Ed.2d 468 (1971)). Given this high standard, “timely brought criminal prosecutions are only rarely dismissed.” United States v. Cornielle, 171 F.3d 748, 752 (2d Cir. 1999). And, when timely brought criminal prosecutions are dismissed, it is only where a defendant has met the “heavy burden of proving both that he suffered actual prejudice because of the alleged pre-indictment delay and [241]*241that such delay was a- course intentionally pursued by the government for an improper purpose.” Id. (quotation marks omitted, emphasis in original).

In its papers and at oral argument, the Government largely conceded that, at least as to the 2010 incident, the Defendant has suffered prejudice in the form of “the loss of documentary evidence or the unavailability of key witnesses.” Cornielle, 171 F.3d at 752. See Docket No. 26 .

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

Related

United States v. Rivera
546 F.3d 245 (Second Circuit, 2008)
Garrity v. New Jersey
385 U.S. 493 (Supreme Court, 1967)
United States v. Marion
404 U.S. 307 (Supreme Court, 1971)
Kastigar v. United States
406 U.S. 441 (Supreme Court, 1972)
United States v. Lovasco
431 U.S. 783 (Supreme Court, 1977)
Bank of Nova Scotia v. United States
487 U.S. 250 (Supreme Court, 1988)
United States v. Williams
504 U.S. 36 (Supreme Court, 1992)
Zafiro v. United States
506 U.S. 534 (Supreme Court, 1993)
United States v. Armstrong
517 U.S. 456 (Supreme Court, 1996)
United States v. Slough
641 F.3d 544 (D.C. Circuit, 2011)
United States v. Joseph D. Nunan, Jr.
236 F.2d 576 (Second Circuit, 1956)
United States v. Irwin Halper
590 F.2d 422 (Second Circuit, 1979)
United States v. Louis Werner
620 F.2d 922 (Second Circuit, 1980)
United States v. Albert Tantalo
680 F.2d 903 (Second Circuit, 1982)
United States v. Dominic Mariani
851 F.2d 595 (Second Circuit, 1988)
United States v. Jack Blakney
941 F.2d 114 (Second Circuit, 1991)
United States v. Moyer
674 F.3d 192 (Third Circuit, 2012)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
198 F. Supp. 3d 235, 2016 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 98106, 2016 WL 4009530, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-krug-nywd-2016.