United States v. Maloney

Procedural entryThis page is a short order in United States v. Maloney. Read the opinion of the Court — 513 F.3d 350
Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit·Decided January 17, 2008·No. 06-3745·Published

Opinion

Opinions of the United

2008 Decisions States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit

1-17-2008

USA v. Maloney Precedential or Non-Precedential: Precedential

Docket No. 06-3745

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PRECEDENTIAL

UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE THIRD CIRCUIT

No. 06-3745

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

v.

SHARIF MALONEY,

Appellant

On Appeal from the United States District Court for the District of New Jersey (D.C. No. 01-cr-00203-1)

District Judge: Honorable Jerome B. Simandle

Argued December 13, 2007

Before: SLOVITER, AMBRO, Circuit Judges, and POLLAK,* District Judge

(Filed: January 17, 2008)

K. Anthony Thomas (Argued) Office of Federal Public Defender Newark, N.J. 07102

Attorney for Appellant

*

Hon. Louis H. Pollak, Senior Judge, United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, sitting by designation.

George S. Leone Office of United States Attorney Newark, N.J. 07102

Glenn J. Moramarco (Argued) Office of United States Attorney Camden, N.J. 08101

Attorneys for Appellee

OPINION OF THE COURT

SLOVITER, Circuit Judge.

The District Court found Sharif Maloney guilty of violating three conditions of his supervised release and sentenced him to imprisonment for a year and a day and one additional year of supervision. Maloney appeals. We must consider whether there was adequate evidence to support the District Court’s findings. Although we review the record relating to all three conditions, the principal legal issue is whether the condition of supervised release requiring Maloney to notify his probation officer of questioning by law enforcement officers was impermissibly vague.

I.

In 2001, while on parole from a felony conviction in New Jersey state court, Maloney was convicted in federal court of possessing a firearm in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 922(g)(1), and was sentenced to a term of twenty-eight months and eighteen days imprisonment and a three-year term of supervised release. After completing his term of imprisonment and beginning his period of supervision on January 12, 2004, Maloney undertook work as a shoe peddler in Newark.

It was the view of the Probation Office that Maloney

“made a poor adjustment to supervision.” App. at 215. In early 2006, it filed a petition charging Maloney with violating a number of the conditions of his supervised release. On May 16, 2006, Maloney pled guilty to one of the charges, i.e., that he had violated his conditions of supervision by associating with convicted felons; he was continued on supervised release with the additional condition that he serve six months in a halfway house. Before Maloney was designated to a facility, however, the Probation Office learned that he had attended the trial of a member of the “Bloods” street gang, entering and leaving the courtroom in close proximity with another convicted felon. The Probation Office also learned that Maloney had been issued a summons by the Newark Police Department for failing to display a peddler’s license. Suspecting that Maloney had further violated the conditions of his supervised release, the Probation Office sought a warrant for his arrest.

While Maloney was detained pending a revocation hearing, the Probation Office learned that Maloney had been charged with eluding the police. This charge arose from New Jersey State Trooper Marcos Arroyo’s report that a red Mercedes Benz registered to and driven by Maloney had fled after Trooper Arroyo attempted to stop the vehicle. Consequently, the Probation Office filed a petition charging Maloney with four violations of his supervised release: (1) failing to notify his probation officer that he had been questioned by police in connection with the summons for failure to display his peddler’s license; (2) associating with a convicted felon;1 (3) failing to report that he had purchased or had access to the red Mercedes; and (4) committing the crime of eluding a law enforcement officer during his period of supervision (hereafter referred to as Charges No. 1, No. 3, and No. 4).

At Maloney’s revocation hearing, the government introduced testimony by Maloney’s probation officer, Anthony

1 Because the District Court found Maloney not guilty of Charge No. 2, we do not further discuss its underlying facts or otherwise refer to it in this opinion.

Nisi, and by Trooper Arroyo. Nisi testified about the summons Maloney was issued for failing to display his peddler’s license on May 4, 2006 (Charge No. 1). When Nisi asked the Newark Police Department about the issuance of the summons, he “was informed that in order for this summons to be issued, contact is necessary” because “the law enforcement officer simply just does not write a summons and walk away.” App. at 51. Nisi testified that Maloney did not notify him of this incident, although the two had met on May 23, 2006, more than two weeks after the summons was issued. When Nisi asked Maloney why he did not notify him of the summons, Maloney simply shrugged and responded that he did not know. The summons was ultimately dismissed.

Trooper Arroyo testified about the facts underlying the charge of eluding a law enforcement officer (Charge No. 4). In the early hours of May 7, 2006, Arroyo spotted the red Mercedes near the highway, recognizing the vehicle from an unsuccessful pursuit he had engaged in earlier that week. As the car slowly turned onto the highway Arroyo verified the license plate number and then illuminated the vehicle’s interior with his spotlight for approximately ten seconds. Arroyo activated the overhead lights of his patrol car, the signal to stop. Instead, the car “fled,” at a speed that Arroyo estimated was in excess of 110 miles per hour. App. at 21-22. Before the Mercedes fled, Arroyo viewed four black males in the car, but he concentrated on the driver, whom he later described as having dreadlocks. Later that day, Arroyo learned that the red Mercedes was registered to Maloney, obtained pictures of him from state databases, and identified him as the driver of the vehicle that he had pursued that morning.

Arroyo testified that he encountered the red Mercedes a third time the very next day, and on this occasion a woman identified as Summer Sprofera was driving the car. Arroyo testified that Sprofera told him Maloney was driving the red Mercedes in the early hours of May 7. Nisi confirmed that the red Mercedes and two additional vehicles were registered in Maloney’s name, and that Maloney failed to report his ownership of those vehicles in his monthly supervision report.

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