United States v. Paitsel

CourtDistrict Court, District of Columbia
DecidedSeptember 22, 2022
DocketCriminal No. 2019-0156
StatusPublished

This text of United States v. Paitsel (United States v. Paitsel) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, District of Columbia primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
United States v. Paitsel, (D.D.C. 2022).

Opinion

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, v. Criminal Action No. 19-156 (CKK) BRIAN WINSTON BAILEY, et al.,

Defendants.

MEMORANDUM OPINION AND ORDER (September 22, 2022) Before the Court is Defendant Bailey’s [207] Motion in Limine with Respect to

Government Exhibits and [212] Motion in Limine with Respect to New Government Exhibits.

As the Court has explained in prior minute orders, all pre-trial briefing was due August 5, 2022.

Despite that firm deadline, Defendant Bailey filed two additional evidentiary motions on August

29, 2022 and September 8, 2022. After resolving the latest evidentiary motion, which the Court

assumed would be the last, counsel for Defendant Bailey informed the Court at the pretrial

conference on September 19, 2022, four days before trial, that Bailey would file the [207] motion

in limine, but only as to one issue. In fact, the [207] motion moves to exclude four categories of

exhibits––thirty-four in total––on several legal theories. The [212] motion responds to recent,

additional Government exhibits identified on September 20, 2022 as a result of the Court’s

September 20, 2022 [208] Order modifying its tentative jury instructions. As a result, the Court

set an expedited briefing schedule and has reviewed each exhibit in camera and in total.

Upon consideration of the briefing and in camera review of the exhibits themselves, the

Court shall DENY IN PART AND HOLD IN ABEYANCE IN PART Defendant Bailey’s

[207] Motion in Limine with Respect to Government Exhibits and DENY Defendant Bailey’s

[212] Motion in Limine with Respect to New Government Exhibits. Specifically, the Court

1 OVERRULES Defendant’s objections to Exhibits 3B, 3C, 3D, 7A, 7B, 8, 101A, 101B, 101C,

101D, 101F, 101G, 102A, 102B, 102C, 105A, 105B, 105E, 106A, 106F, 106H, 107A, 108A,

108E, 108F, and 111F. The Court OVERRULES Defendant’s objections to Exhibits 111A and

111B, but will read a limiting instruction to the jury. The Court HOLDS IN ABEYANCE

Defendant’s objections to Exhibits 6A, 6D, 110A, 110B, and 111G pending proffered testimony

from the Government during its case-in-chief.

Before turning to each of Defendant’s evidentiary arguments, the Court briefly reiterates

that the Government has charged Defendant Bailey by indictment with conspiracy in violation of

18 U.S.C. § 371 and bribery in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 201(b)(1)(C). The Government alleges

two conspiracies: (1) a conspiracy between Bailey and Dawne Dorsey to unlawfully obtain

confidential government records known as Tenant Opportunity to Purchase Act (TOPA) Notices,

and (2) a conspiracy between Bailey and co-Defendant Paitsel to unlawfully obtain confidential

contact information on tenants identified in the TOPA notices. In the Court’s last two orders, the

Court held that the Government must identify statutes, regulations, and/or policies applicable to

Dorsey and Paitsel to convict Bailey of subsection 201(b)(1)(C) bribery.

Now, Defendant Bailey moves to exclude at least four categories of exhibits. First,

Defendant Bailey moves to exclude all statements by Dorsey as hearsay unless Dorsey herself

testifies at trial that she conspired with Bailey. Second, Defendant moves to exclude certain

emails from others to Bailey as hearsay. Third, Bailey moves to exclude exhibits containing

government confidentiality and anti-graft policies as (1) hearsay, (2) irrelevant, and (3)

inadmissible without expert testimony. As a final category in the Court’s analysis, Defendant

Bailey moves to exclude certain other records, including law-enforcement database guidelines

and a summary chart of TOPA notices Dorsey allegedly provided Bailey on similar grounds.

2 They Court will either deny these objections or hold them in abeyance pending the

Government’s case-in-chief.

I. Co-Conspirator Statements

Defendant first argues that the Court should exclude all statements by alleged co-

conspirator Dorsey unless Dorsey herself testifies to the existence of a conspiracy between

herself and Bailey. Because the Court concludes that the relevant proffered exhibits, all of which

are admissible, establish a conspiracy between Dorsey and Bailey by a preponderance of the

evidence, the Court shall hold admissible all the statements by Dorsey to which Defendants have

specifically objected. These statements are in the hundreds. Exhibit 3B alone contains 2,931

text messages between Bailey and Dorsey alone. The Court has reviewed each message, which

was particularly time-consuming. 1

Defendant does not object to the admissibility of his own statements, which are

admissible non-hearsay admissions of a party opponent pursuant to Federal Rule of Evidence

801(d)(2)(A). Rather, Defendant seeks to exclude all statements by alleged co-conspirator

Dorsey on the theory that the Government cannot demonstrate a conspiracy between Dorsey and

Bailey without Dorsey’s live testimony. Although co-conspirator statements are generally

admissible non-hearsay when they are “made by the party’s co-conspirator during and in

furtherance of the conspiracy,” Fed. R. Evid. 801(d)(2)(E), Defendant correctly notes that the

Court may only admit such statements upon an antecedent finding of such a conspiracy between

1 For ease of reference, the Court simply refers the parties to that exhibit and the individual texts marked by counsel for Defendant Bailey in a copy of the exhibit provided to Chambers ex parte and in camera. Because the Government has represented that they have received an identically- marked copy of the exhibit, the Court will not list each message by number or time, which, again, are in the hundreds. 3 the declarant and the party opponent. Relying on Bailey’s own statements and Dorsey’s non-

assertive conduct, the Court has no difficulty making such a finding here.

That antecedent finding is governed by Federal Rule of Evidence 104(b); the Court must

find by a preponderance of the evidence that (1) a conspiracy existed, (2) that the defendant and

the declarant were involved in that conspiracy, and (3) that the declarant’s statement was made in

furtherance of that conspiracy. See Bourjaily v. United States, 483 U.S. 171, 175-76 (1987);

United States v. Brockenborrugh, 575 F.3d 726, 735 (D.C. Cir. 2009). In making this

determination, the Court “must find that the Government has offered ‘independent evidence’

apart from the statements themselves that a conspiracy exists and that the Defendant and the

declarant were involved in the conspiracy.’” United States v. Lorenzana-Cordon, Crim. A. No.

03-cr-331-13-14 (CKK), 2016 WL 11664060, at *1 (D.D.C. Jan. 21, 2016) (quoting United

States v. Gewin, 471 F.3d 197, 201 (D.C. Cir. 2006)).

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