United States v. RW Professional Leasing Services Corp.

327 F. Supp. 2d 192, 2004 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 15014, 2004 WL 1746078
District Court, E.D. New York·Decided August 5, 2004·No. 02 CR 767(ADS)(MLO)·Published·Cited by 2 cases

Opinion

MEMORANDUM OF DECISION AND ORDER

SPATT, District Judge.

This case involves charges of conspiracy to commit bank fraud, wire fraud and money laundering. Presently before the Court are the following motions: (1) a motion by the defendant Myrna Katz (“Katz”) to suppress certain statements; (2) Katz’s motion for severance of her case and a separate trial pursuant to Rule 14 of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure (“Fed. R.Crim.P”); and (3) a motion by the defendant RW Professional Leasing Services, Inc. (“PLS”) for reconsideration of the Court’s Memorandum of Decision and Order dated May 4, 2004.

*194 I. BACKGROUND

The background of this case is incorporated in the Court’s memorandum of decision and order dated May 4, 2004. Familiarity with that decision is assumed. The defendants RW Professional Leasing Services, Inc. (“PLS”), Rochelle Besser, Barry Drayer, Roger Drayer, Adam Drayer, and Susan Cottrell (collectively, the “PLS defendants”) operated a medical equipment financing company, in which they arranged financing for the leasing of medical equipment by medical providers and supplied these providers with working capital loans. PLS apparently obtained loans from financial institutions for the purported purpose of purchasing medical equipment that would be leased to medical providers. In many instances, the leases and the medical equipment served as collateral for the loans. The second superceding indictment (“indictment”) charges, among other things, that PLS devised a scheme to provide the financial institutions with sham documentation creating the false impression that the medical providers were leasing equipment from PLS.

The indictment further charges Katz, a former Branch Manager for the Bank of New York, with conspiring with the PLS defendants to defraud certain lending institutions by executing false escrow agreements for the PLS defendants, and with violating other criminal statutes relating to unauthorized bank loans. In addition, the indictment charges the defendant Stephen Barker with participating in the bank fraud conspiracy through his company, Carefree Financial Services (“Carefree”), which brokered financing for medical providers through PLS. The indictment charges that Barker created false purchase invoices in the name of a sham entity known as Medpro Equipment Company in order to make it appear as if PLS had purchased medical equipment from Med-pro for the benefit of medical providers.

II. DISCUSSION

A. Motion by Katz for Severance and Separate Trial

The defendant Katz moves for severance and a separate trial pursuant to Rule 14 of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure. Katz contends that being tried together with the co-defendants would likely result in a jury verdict against her, even absent specific proof that she herself was directly involved in the conspiracy. Katz claims that she had nothing to do with the PLS defendants and that she would be “tarred with the same brush and prejudiced by the association with them” if she is compelled to stand trial with those defendants.

Courts have repeatedly held that, generally, defendants who are indicted together should be tried together. See United States v. Ventura, 724 F.2d 305, 312 (2d Cir.1983) (citations omitted). Joint trials “promote efficiency and ‘serve the interests of justice by avoiding the scandal and inequity of inconsistent verdicts.’” Zafiro v. United States, 506 U.S. 534, 536, 113 S.Ct. 933, 122 L.Ed.2d 317 (1993) (quoting Richardson v. Marsh, 481 U.S. 200, 209, 107 S.Ct. 1702, 95 L.Ed.2d 176 (1987)). Indeed, the Second Circuit has supported joint trials, noting that:

It would impair both the sufficiency and the fairness of the criminal justice system to require ... that prosecutors bring separate proceedings, presenting the same evidence again and again, requiring victims and witnesses to repeat the inconvenience (and sometimes trauma) of testifying, and randomly favoring the last-tried defendants who have the advantage of knowing the prosecution’s case beforehand.

United States v. Salameh, 152 F.3d 88, 115 (2d Cir.1998) (quoting Richardson, 481 U.S. at 210, 107 S.Ct. 1702).

*195 The decision to grant or deny a motion for severance is committed to the sound discretion of the district court. Salameh, 152 F.3d at 115. Pursuant to Rule 14, “a district court should grant a severance only if there is a serious risk that a joint trial would compromise a specific trial right of one of the defendants, or prevent the jury from making a reliable judgment about guilt or innocence.” Zafiro, 506 U.S. at 539, 113 S.Ct. 933. Defendants are not entitled to severance merely because they may have a better chance of acquittal in separate trials. Id. at 540, 113 S.Ct. 933; see, e.g., United States v. Martinez, 922 F.2d 914, 922 (1st Cir.1991). Furthermore, Rule 14 does not require severance even when sufficient proof of prejudice exists. United States v. Haynes, 16 F.3d 29, 32 (2d Cir.1994). Rather, “limiting instructions often will suffice to cure any risk of prejudice.” Zafiro, 506 U.S. at 539, 113 S.Ct. 933.

Here, severance is not necessary or required. The Court finds that the evidence that will be introduced against Katz would not be so prejudicial as to warrant severance under Rule 14. “That one defendant’s role in the conspiracy may have been smaller or less central than that of certain other co-conspirators does not mandate a separate trial.” United States v. Vega, 458 F.2d 1234, 1236 (2d Cir.1972), cert denied, 410 U.S. 982, 93 S.Ct. 1506, 36 L.Ed.2d 177 (1973). In addition, in this case, the indictment alleges that Katz was directly involved in the alleged conspiracy to commit fraud. Even if the Court severed Katz’s trial from that of her co-defendants, much of the same evidence would inevitably be introduced at both trials. See id. (“Evidence at the joint trial of alleged co-conspirators that, because of the alleged conspiratorial nature of the illegal activity, would have been admissible at a separate trial of the moving defendant is neither spillover nor prejudicial.”).

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United States v. RW Professional Leasing Services Corp., 327 F. Supp. 2d 192, 2004 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 15014, 2004 WL 1746078 (E.D.N.Y. 2004).

327 F. Supp. 2d 192 (United States v. RW Professional Leasing Services Corp.) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

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