United States v. Meenya Tanesh Thomas

193 F. App'x 881
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit
DecidedAugust 16, 2006
Docket05-16590; D.C. Docket 05-00187-CR-2-SLB-HGD
StatusUnpublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 193 F. App'x 881 (United States v. Meenya Tanesh Thomas) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Eleventh 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. Meenya Tanesh Thomas, 193 F. App'x 881 (11th Cir. 2006).

Opinion

PER CURIAM:

Meenya Tanesh Thomas appeals her 21-month concurrent sentences, imposed after a jury convicted her of two counts of committing perjury before a grand jury, both violations of 18 U.S.C. § 1623(a). On appeal, she argues that the district court erred by (1) denying her motion to suppress statements made to police; (2) her motion to disqualify the prosecuting attorney; and (3) applying a two-level sentencing enhancement for obstruction of justice. For the reasons set forth more fully below, we affirm.

Prior to trial, Thomas filed a motion to have the prosecutor withdraw himself from the case because Thomas intended to call him as a witness. The government opposed the motion, and described in detail *883 the robbery that triggered the grand jury testimony at issue in this case. Thomas, according to the government, was the girlfriend of one of the suspects in the robbery, Xavier Perkins, and when interviewed by police, she said that Perkins had told her that he had robbed a CVS Pharmacy and gotten into a shootout with police. When she testified before the grand jury, however, Thomas denied making the statement to police and claimed that she fabricated a second, written statement because Detective Eddie Morrissette had threatened her. The government opposed Thomas’s motion because Thomas had failed to demonstrate a compelling need to call the prosecutor as a witness.

Thomas responded by arguing that she intended to call the prosecutor as a witness, and, therefore, it was improper for him to simultaneously prosecute the case in which he was going to testify. She argued that it was unfair for the prosecutor’s credibility to be gauged by the jury based upon his presentation of the case (voir dire, opening statement, examination of witnesses) prior to giving his own testimony. Next, Thomas argued that she did not have to show a compelling need for the prosecutor to be called as a witness because she should not be placed in a position where she would have to disclose trial strategy. In addition, she argued that her Sixth Amendment interests in obtaining witnesses outweighed any interest Simpson had in avoiding testifying.

The district court denied the motion after finding that Thomas failed to demonstrate any compelling need to call the prosecutor as a witness. Thomas filed a motion for reconsideration of the court’s order and argued that she had a compelling need to call Simpson because he was the only witness, other than Thomas herself, to her testimony before the grand jury. She further argued that the grand jury transcript of her testimony was not a substitute for the prosecutor’s testimony, which would better capture the overall veracity of Thomas’s grand jury testimony. Lastly, she argued that the district court’s refusal to call the prosecutor as a witness would deny her Sixth Amendment right to confront the only witness with first-hand knowledge of her testimony. That motion was denied. At a later hearing, Thomas was given an opportunity to clarify her compelling need for the prosecutor to be called as a witness, and she stated that the grand jury transcript “can’t capture the body language, the dynamics, of what was said and how it was said. Only a five witness can convey that to this court.” The district court found no compelling need.

The morning of the trial, Thomas filed a motion in limine that was converted to a Miranda 1 hearing to determine whether Thomas was in custody when she gave statements to the police. Thomas called Detective Eddie Morrissette, who spoke to Thomas and her mother regarding a CVS robbery. Thomas was in plain clothes, but had his badge and firearm showing. Morrissette first spoke with Thomas’s mother, Lorene, because Thomas was not present at her home when Morrissette arrived. Thomas later arrived, and Morrissette began questioning her. Morrissette observed that, at the time, Thomas was handcuffed but not arrested. After Thomas had identified herself, however, Morrissette unhandcuffed her “within moments.” Morrissette questioned Thomas and explained to her that, if in fact she had picked up the men from the scene of the robbery, she could get in trouble because it was against the law. However, Morrissette never told Thomas that she was fac *884 ing any charges. Morrissette then asked Thomas if she would accompany him to the police department, and Thomas replied that she would. Morrissette asked Thomas’s mother if she could pick Thomas up, and she agreed. Thomas was not placed in handcuffs, and, in fact, sat in the front seat of the police cruiser and used her cell phone.

Once at the police department, Thomas gave a formal statement to an officer other than Morrissette. At no point was Thomas ever placed under arrest, and she was at the police department just over an hour while giving her statement. Morrissette further testified that he never told Thomas that she had to come with him and Thomas never expressed any reluctance to talk to him or a desire to leave.

Next, Thomas called her mother, Lorene. She testified that, on January 7, she was at home with her granddaughter when a “team of police” knocked on her door. The police rushed them out of the house and she was eventually approached by Morrissette. While she was talking to Morrissette, Thomas drove up and Morrissette asked Thomas if she knew where Perkins was before walking off with her. Thomas was not handcuffed. Some time later, Morrissette told Lorene that he was taking Thomas “downtown” for questioning, but did not indicate that Thomas was under arrest. Lorene, however, was under the impression that Thomas was under arrest because of “the way [Morrissette] turned around and said he was going to take her downtown, the way he was talking to her and everything, motioning his hands and everything.” In Lorene’s opinion, Thomas was not leaving of her own volition.

Morrissette was re-called by the court, and he clarified that, while at Thomas’s home, he spoke with Thomas for approximately 30 minutes, but at no time placed her or told her that she was under arrest. When asked if she would go with Morrissette to the police station, Thomas showed no reluctance and made no statement indicating that she would rather not go.

The court then denied the motion to suppress, first finding that the 30-minute investigative detention was not unreasonable and that Thomas was not under arrest either at her home or when she went to the police station. It further found that, under the totality of the circumstances, a reasonable person in Thomas’s situation “would not have believed that she was not free to go.”

At trial, the government called as witnesses both Keith Kennedy, the court reporter of Thomas’s grand jury testimony, and FBI Agent Greg Gauger, who also was present during Thomas’s grand jury testimony. The only reference made to the prosecutor’s participation in the grand jury proceeding was made by Kennedy, who identified the transcript as “the testimony of Meenya Thomas on March 30, 2005, conducted by yourself.” The government read the transcript of Thomas’s grand jury testimony, during which she was informed that she had an obligation to tell the truth and her failure to do so could lead to a perjury charge that carried a five-year maximum term of imprisonment for each lie.

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Bluebook (online)
193 F. App'x 881, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-meenya-tanesh-thomas-ca11-2006.