United States v. Valladares

544 F.3d 1257, 2008 WL 4511309
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit
DecidedOctober 9, 2008
Docket07-14592
StatusPublished
Cited by98 cases

This text of 544 F.3d 1257 (United States v. Valladares) 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. Valladares, 544 F.3d 1257, 2008 WL 4511309 (11th Cir. 2008).

Opinion

*1261 PER CURIAM:

Gisela Valladares appeals her convictions and sentences for: (1) a multiple object conspiracy (a) to defraud the United States by impairing the functioning and administration of the Medicare Program in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 371; (b) to knowingly cause the submission of false claims to the Department of Health and Human Services in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 287; and (c) to knowingly solicit and receive cash kickbacks involving a federal health care program in violation of 42 U.S.C. § 1320a — 7b(b)(l); (2) conspiracy to defraud the Medicare Program in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1349; and (3) three counts of soliciting and receiving cash kickbacks involving the Medicare Program in violation of 42 U.S.C. § 1320a — 7b(b)(l).

This case involves Valladares’ participation in a scheme to defraud the Medicare program. Acting on the instructions of two pharmacies, Valladares would pay Medicare beneficiaries to go to doctors, whom she also bribed, in order to obtain prescriptions for medically unnecessary aerosol medication. In exchange for kickbacks, Valladares would then give these prescriptions to the pharmacies, which would use them to submit fraudulent reimbursement claims to Medicare. Although it was not charged in the indictment, the government also presented evidence at trial indicating that Valladares was independently submitting similar, fraudulent Medicare claims on behalf of her company, PRN Home Health Care, which provided aerosol-related medical equipment to Medicare beneficiaries.

After a three-day trial, the jury returned its verdict convicting Valladares on all counts of the indictment. The court then held a hearing on the forfeiture issues involved in the ease, after which it entered a forfeiture order in the amount of $245,351. At her sentence hearing, the district court sentenced Valladares to 120 months imprisonment and ordered restitution in the amount of $1,726,957.18. After filing a timely appeal, Valladares contends that the district court erred by: (1) denying her motions to continue the trial; (2) miscalculating her applicable guidelines range by using the commercial bribery guideline in United States Sentencing Guidelines § 2B4.1 (Nov.2006) to calculate her base offense level, applying an 18-level enhancement under U.S.S.G. § 2B4.1(b)(l)(B), and applying a four-level aggravating-role enhancement under U.S.S.G. § 3Bl.l(a); (3) improperly calculating the amount of restitution; and (4) improperly ordering forfeiture.

I.

We first address Valladares’ contention that the district court abused its discretion by denying her unopposed motions to continue the trial on the ground that she did not have enough time to analyze the voluminous records related to the facts of the case. She was put to trial fifty-four days after the indictment was returned, forty-seven days after she was arrested, and thirty-five days after she was arraigned. That, she argues, was too quickly to permit her to adequately prepare for trial, and the problem was aggravated by the government’s delay in making certain information available to her. According to Valladares, this Court has found an abuse of discretion when the district court denied defense counsel’s motions for a continuance under similar circumstances.

We review a district court’s denial of a motion for continuance only for an abuse of discretion. United States v. Baker, 432 F.3d 1189, 1248 (11th Cir.2005). “The Sixth and Fourteenth Amendments to the U.S. Constitution guarantee that any person brought to trial in any state or federal court must be afforded the right to assistance of counsel before he or she can *1262 be validly convicted and punished by imprisonment.” United States v. Verderame, 51 F.3d 249, 251 (11th Cir.1995).

Under certain circumstances, denial of a motion for continuance of trial may vitiate the effect of this fundamental right .... There are no mechanical tests for deciding when a denial of a continuance is so arbitrary as to violate due process. The answer must be found in the circumstances present in every case, particularly in the reasons presented to the trial judge at the time the request is denied.

Id. (quotation omitted). “To prevail on such a claim, a defendant must show that the denial of the motion for continuance was an abuse of discretion which resulted in specific substantial prejudice.” Id. “To make such a showing, [the defendant] must identify relevant, non-cumulative evidence that would have been presented if [her] request for a continuance had been granted.” United States v. Saget, 991 F.2d 702, 708 (11th Cir.1993).

In United States v. Gibbs, 594 F.2d 125 (5th Cir.1979), 1 a bankruptcy fraud case, we concluded that the district court did not abuse its discretion by denying the defendant’s motion for a continuance. Id. at 127. The defendant, as the president of a hotel, had presented to the hotel fictitious invoices for bedding and linens after the hotel had filed for bankruptcy. Id. at 126. He then had the hotel issue checks for the invoices, which he deposited into a bank account for which he was the sole signatory. Id. The defendant was arraigned on June 29, 1978, and his trial was scheduled to begin on July 17. Id. On June 29, the defendant filed a motion for a continuance, which the district court denied, and the trial began on July 26. Id.

After a jury trial the defendant in Gibbs was convicted and he appealed, arguing that the district court erred by denying his motion for a continuance because “more time was necessary to review the Hotel’s records to assemble receipts and invoices substantiating his claim that [the amount of one of the checks] represented reimbursement for personal expenses on behalf of the Hotel.” Id. We concluded that the district court did not abuse its discretion. Id. at 127. We found that the defendant had ample time to prepare his defense, and he had “point[ed] to no critical documents that might have been uncovered with additional time and whose absence prejudiced or impaired his defense.” Id.

In United States v. Gossett, 877 F.2d 901 (11th Cir.1989), the defendants were convicted of mutiny and murder arising out of events that occurred on a ship in the Atlantic Ocean. Id. at 903.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
544 F.3d 1257, 2008 WL 4511309, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-valladares-ca11-2008.