United States v. Raymond P. Hamilton

263 F.3d 645, 2001 U.S. App. LEXIS 19392, 2001 WL 992080
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit
DecidedAugust 31, 2001
Docket00-6041
StatusPublished
Cited by47 cases

This text of 263 F.3d 645 (United States v. Raymond P. Hamilton) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Sixth 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. Raymond P. Hamilton, 263 F.3d 645, 2001 U.S. App. LEXIS 19392, 2001 WL 992080 (6th Cir. 2001).

Opinion

OPINION

GILMAN, Circuit Judge.

Raymond P. Hamilton, a former Louisville, Kentucky police officer, was indicted for (1) conspiracy to commit credit card fraud, (2) extortion, and (3) attempted extortion. After a four-day jury trial, he was convicted on all counts. He was then sentenced by the district court to serve 18 months in prison, spend three years on supervised release, and pay $17,666 in restitution. Hamilton now appeals, challenging his conviction and sentence on various grounds. For the reasons set forth below, we AFFIRM the judgment of the district court.

I. BACKGROUND

This case revolves around the actions of three individuals. One is Hamilton, who was a Louisville police officer at the time of the events in question. The second is Michael Gordon, a businessman who owned a pawn shop in Louisville and was a personal friend of Hamilton. Finally, Virgil Mozee was a convicted felon who fenced illegally obtained merchandise at Gordon’s pawn shop. The government charged that during the time that Mozee was selling illegally obtained items to Gordon, Hamilton provided a police presence at the pawn *648 shop and assisted Mozee in thwarting earlier felony charges of credit card fraud, all in exchange for receiving pawn shop items at special discounts.

A. Conspiracy to commit credit card fraud

The charged conspiracy occurred during 1996 and 1997, when Mozee stole credit cards from ladies’ purses left in shopping carts. He would then use the cards to purchase computers and other merchandise to sell to Gordon’s pawn shop. This merchandise would in turn be resold to other pawn shop customers. On some occasions, Mozee would use a toll-free telephone number provided by Gordon to check on whether the stolen credit cards remained valid before using them. Gordon would then place orders with Mozee so that Mozee could order specific items using the stolen credit cards. When the cards became unusable, Mozee would give them to Gordon, who would turn them over to the issuing bank in exchange for a $60 recovery fee.

The date when Gordon first became aware that Mozee was obtaining merchandise by using stolen credit cards is contested. Mozee claims that Gordon learned of Mozee’s scheme sometime between December of 1996 and January of 1997, when Mozee first began selling items to Gordon. Gordon, however, recalls that it was not until “probably around May or June [of 1997]” that Mozee first told him that the merchandise was being bought with stolen credit cards. To support its contention that Gordon knew about the fraud from the time Mozee first began coming to the pawn shop, the government presented evidence that Mozee was never required to fill out a pawn card and be thumbprinted for items he brought to the store, even though the cards and thumbprinting are required by law.

Also contested is the date when Hamilton initially learned of the credit card fraud. Gordon testified that on the first occasion when Hamilton was present during one of Mozee’s sales to the pawn shop, Hamilton heard Gordon tell Mozee not to worry about Hamilton’s presence and “just to bring the stuff in.” Even though Gordon thought that this occurred around June or July of 1997, Mozee testified that it occurred in late 1996 or early 1997. Mozee also claimed that he saw Hamilton in the store twice a week before April of 1997, and about three times a week thereafter. During those times, Mozee openly talked with Gordon about how he had obtained the merchandise that he was selling by using fraudulent credit cards. Mozee was never arrested by Hamilton, even though Hamilton saw that Mozee was selling items to Gordon without filling out a pawn card and being thumbprinted as required by law.

Finally, Gordon testified that he explicitly told Hamilton about the credit card fraud in September or October of 1997, and that this information did not seem to surprise Hamilton. Gordon also said, however, that he believed Hamilton had no reason to know of the fraud prior to being explicitly informed of its existence. But the government contends that Hamilton’s actions indicated he was aware, well before September or October of 1997, that Mozee had engaged in earlier instances of credit card fraud. In particular, the government points out that on April 11, 1997, Hamilton helped reduce three felony charges pending against Mozee for using a fraudulent credit card down to one misdemeanor conviction involving no jail time.

Hamilton had also been personally involved in approximately a hundred transactions with the pawn shop over the course of four or five years. On one occasion, Hamilton loaned Gordon money to operate *649 his business. In addition, during his visits to the pawn shop, Mozee testified that Hamilton purchased various items at deep discounts that Mozee had brought to the pawn shop to sell, including two computers, a leather coat, and a number of Nintendo video games, all items that Hamilton had been informed came from Mozee. Hamilton later sold some of these items to others. On one occasion, Hamilton even told Gordon that he wanted a certain item and, according to Mozee, told Gordon that he should have Mozee obtain a credit card in order to purchase that item.

By November of 1997, Mozee and Gordon had become suspects in a police investigation into credit card thefts in the Louisville area. The police noticed, while conducting surveillance of the pawn shop, that a marked police car was often parked on the sidewalk in front of the shop. This car was determined to be Hamilton’s.

Mozee was arrested for using a stolen credit card in December of 1997. During his questioning, Mozee told the police about his connection with Gordon. He also told the police that he had sold some of his illegally purchased merchandise to a Louisville police officer named “White.” Because Hamilton’s car had been seen in front of Gordon’s pawn shop, the police suspected that “White” was actually Hamilton. Accordingly, the police placed Hamilton’s photograph in a photopack with other pictures, and Mozee picked out Hamilton’s photograph as “White.”

Mozee later agreed to cooperate with the police in exchange for leniency on his own charges. After Mozee agreed to cooperate, the investigators wired him with a recording device and placed the pawn shop under audio and video surveillance. The investigators then gave lawfully obtained merchandise to Mozee so that he could sell the merchandise to Gordon under the guise of having obtained the merchandise illegally. On both December 11 and 12, 1997, Hamilton offered to help Mozee obtain an attorney for his current troubles with the police. The recorded conversations also made references to a computer that Hamilton desired to acquire. Taped telephone calls between Mozee and Hamilton contained additional statements made by Hamilton offering to obtain an attorney for Mozee in exchange for a computer.

Gordon and Hamilton were both arrested on December 17, 1997. The police subsequently searched Hamilton’s home with his consent, where they found a computer and a leather coat that had been purchased using a stolen credit card and sold to Gordon’s pawn shop by Mozee. Hamilton then gave a recorded statement to the police, admitting “that 90 something percent of the stuff that’s in [Gordon’s pawn shop] is probably either stolen or hot merchandise,” and that Gordon had told him that his pawn shop sold stolen goods.

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Bluebook (online)
263 F.3d 645, 2001 U.S. App. LEXIS 19392, 2001 WL 992080, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-raymond-p-hamilton-ca6-2001.