United States v. Paitsel

District Court, District of Columbia·Decided September 22, 2022·No. Criminal No. 2019-0156·Published

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

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.

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 identicallymarked copy of the exhibit, the Court will not list each message by number or time, which, again, are in the hundreds.

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)).

Independent evidence can take any number of forms, including contemporaneous acts suggestive of the charged conspiracy and/or corroborative of the contents of the purported co- conspirator statements. See United States v. Gatling, 96 F.3d 1511, 1520-21 (D.C. Cir. 1996) (involving testimony from others and bank deposits). Pursuant to Federal Rule of Evidence 104(a), the Court is not limited to admissible evidence in answering the antecedent question of whether the declarant was engaged in a conspiracy with the defendant. See United States v. Khatallah, 278 F. Supp. 3d 1, 4-5 (D.D.C. 2017) (citing Bourjaily, 483 U.S. at 176); see also generally Stephen A. Saltzburg, et al., Federal Rules of Evidence Manual § 801.02[6][g][ii][C] (12th ed. 2019) (collecting cases). That said, here, the Court need not rely even on inadmissible

evidence to find a conspiracy and conclude that Dorsey’s statements in Exhibits 3B, 101A, 101F, 102A, 102B, 102C, and 106A are admissible non-hearsay co-conspirator statements. 2 Before turning to evidence of conspiracy, a brief summary of each exhibit is necessary.

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