Justia U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals Opinion Summaries

Defendant appealed his conviction pursuant to a conditional plea agreement for one count of felon in possession of a firearm. Defendant contended that the district court erroneously denied his motion to suppress the handgun that formed the basis for his conviction because the discovery of that handgun was the product of an illegal search and seizure. The court rejected defendant's claim and affirmed the judgment of the district court because defendant was not seized before discarding the handgun and the handgun was not a fruit of the illegal backpack search. View "United States v. McClendon" on Justia Law

Defendant appealed his conviction for distribution of controlled substances. At issue was the denial of defendant's motion to suppress statements he made to FBI agents during a meeting with his parole officer. The court concluded that, because the meeting was a custodial interrogation, Miranda warnings were required to allow the prosecution to use defendant's statements at trial. The agents engaged in a two-step interrogation prohibited by Missouri v. Seibert, deliberately delaying the giving of warnings to induce defendant's cooperation in an ongoing investigation. Although the target of the agents' inquiry was another suspect, the questioning necessarily elicited information that incriminated defendant. The mid-stream warnings provided after defendant incriminated himself were too little, too late. Therefore, the district court's failure to suppress the statements was in error. The confession was central to the conviction. Because the error was not harmless beyond a reasonable doubt, the court reversed the conviction. View "United States v. Barnes" on Justia Law

Defendant was convicted under 18 U.S.C. 911 for making a false claim of citizenship. On appeal, defendant challenged the district court's denial of his motion for a new trial. Defendant argued that his misstatement was not willful because he suffered from a delusion that caused him genuinely to believe that he was a United States citizen. The court concluded that the given instructions, considered as a whole, were adequate in the circumstances of this case. Although defendant's requested instruction more clearly articulated the knowledge requirement, the given instruction was adequate under the circumstances because a "misrepresentation... deliberately made" suggested a knowing falsehood. Combined with the testimony and closing arguments at trial, which focused on what defendant knew, the jury was aware that his subjective belief was the dispositive issue. The court also concluded that there was no plain error in the prosecutor's questioning of defendant's expert witness. Accordingly, the court affirmed the judgment. View "United States v. Anguiano-Morfin" on Justia Law

Defendant was convicted in 1993 of conspiracy to possess and of possessing with intent to distribute 2,915 kilograms of cocaine and was sentenced to 360 months imprisonment. The Sentencing Commission subsequently amended the Sentencing Guidelines to lower the offense level applicable to defendant, with an application note indicating that upward departures from the new level might be warranted in cases involving an excessive quantity of drugs. Defendant subsequently moved under 18 U.S.C. 3582(c)(2) for a reduction of his sentence. The court held that section 3582(c) contained no jurisdictional bar for the district court to entertain a second motion. Any non-jurisdictional challenges to a second motion were waived by the government when it failed to object. The court also concluded that the district court erred in failing to explain at all its rejection of defendant's arguments based on 18 U.S.C. 3553(a) factors. Accordingly, the court vacated the district court's order and remanded for further proceedings. The court rejected defendant's contention that the upward departure under the amended Guideline's application note violated the Ex Post Facto Clause. View "United States v. Trujillo" on Justia Law

Plaintiff appealed the district court's order granting summary judgment in favor of the County Defendants. Plaintiff claimed, among other things, that the County Defendants conspired to violate, and did violate, her Fourth and Fourteenth Amendment rights when they unlawfully searched her home pursuant to an invalid search warrant, used excessive force in the execution of that warrant, and arrested her without probable cause. Because there was probable cause to search plaintiff's residence and to arrest her, the court affirmed the district court's entry of judgment with respect to those claims. Because disputed issues of material fact remained regarding plaintiff's excessive force and conspiracy claims, however, the court reversed and remanded those claims to the district court for further proceedings. View "Cameron v. Craig" on Justia Law

Plaintiff sued several police officers and their employer, the City of Los Angeles, for false arrest, false imprisonment, and malicious prosecution. Plaintiff was charged with attempted murder and was eventually acquitted. At issue was whether plaintiff's action was barred by the doctrine of issue preclusion. The court concluded that plaintiff raised a genuine dispute as to whether an officer fabricated evidence at the preliminary hearing by falsely testifying that the victim had identified plaintiff as the shooter. That alleged fabrication plainly met the materiality threshold for defeating summary judgment on the merits. In this case, the state court never purported to find either that the officer's testimony was credible or that the victim's testimony was not. Accordingly, plaintiff was not barred by the doctrine of issue preclusion and, therefore, the court reversed and remanded. View "Wige v. City of Los Angeles" on Justia Law

Defendants' convictions arose out of a series of events that took place while Defendant Robles was Treasurer of the City of South Gate, California. Robles, along with Defendant Garrido, a local businessman and friend, were implicated in two schemes to award city contracts to particular companies while reaping substantial benefits for themselves. On appeal, defendants challenged their convictions. In light of the the Supreme Court's decision in Skilling v. United States, which narrowed the scope of 18 U.S.C. 1346 to include only honest services fraud based on bribery and kickback schemes, the court reversed Robles's and Garrido's honest services fraud convictions and reversed Robles's money laundering convictions. The court affirmed Robles's bribery convictions under 18 U.S.C. 666 because such convictions did not required the defendant to be engaged in an official act. Accordingly, the court remanded for further proceedings. View "United States v. Garrido" on Justia Law

Plaintiff filed a 42 U.S.C. 1983 action against defendants alleging that he was unlawfully arrested and searched in violation of the Fourth Amendment. Plaintiff was arrested for trespass under California Penal Code 602.8 because he was standing by himself inside a playground that was surrounded by a fence that had "No Trespassing" signs posted at every entrance. The court rejected defendants' argument that the grounds for custodial arrest specified in California Penal Code 853.6(i) applied not only to misdemeanors but also to infractions. Consistent with precedent, the statute's plain language, the rule against superfluity, and other persuasive authority, the court held that California Penal Code 853.5 provided the exclusive grounds for custodial arrest of a person arrested for an infraction. Therefore, the court vacated the judgment in favor of defendants on plaintiff's state law false arrest claim and remanded for further proceedings. If there are no further issues pertaining to liability on this claim, the district court should enter judgment in favor of plaintiff and proceed to a trial on damages. The court rejected plaintiff's remaining contentions. View "Edgerly v. City and County of San Francisco, et al" on Justia Law

Defendant appealed his mandatory-minimum sentence, assigning error to the district court's rejection of his sentencing entrapment argument. Defendant argued a lack of predisposition to commit an offense involving the amount of cocaine charged, and was thus entrapped. Because the capability prong of the predisposition analysis was both less relevant and more easily manipulated in the context of a fictious stash house robbery, a defendant need only show a lack of intent or a lack of capability to establish sentencing entrapment. The court clarified that outrageousness was not itself an independent prong of sentencing entrapment. In this case, the court held that the district court did not abuse its discretion in finding that defendant failed to carry his burden and, therefore, the court affirmed the judgment. View "United States v. Yuman-Hernandez" on Justia Law

Defendant, a prison inmate, filed suit challenging his validation as an "associate" of the Mexican Mafia, a recognized prison gang. The court held that defendant's void-for-vagueness challenge of Cal. Code Regs. tit. 15, 3378(c)(4), an administrative regulation that guides officials in validating inmates as gang affiliates, failed because section 3378(c)(4) clearly indicated to defendant that his conduct could result in validation. Although the district court should have evaluated whether defendant was validated based on "some evidence," remand was not required to correct the error. The evidence in the record showed that prison officials relied on "some evidence" to validate defendant as an associate of the Mexican Mafia gang. Accordingly, the court affirmed the judgment of the district court. View "Castro v. Terhune, et al" on Justia Law