Document ID: s3://data.kl3m.ai/documents/govinfo/USCOURTS/USCOURTS-ca7-15-03836/USCOURTS-ca7-15-03836-0/pdf.json

Parties Involved:
Steven Cross
Appellant
United States of America
Appellee

Document Text:

United States Court of Appeals 

For the Seventh Circuit

Chicago, Illinois 60604

Submitted October 31, 2016*

Decided November 14, 2016

Before

ILANA DIAMOND ROVNER, Circuit Judge

ANN CLAIRE WILLIAMS, Circuit Judge

DAVID F. HAMILTON, Circuit Judge

No. 15‐3836

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA,

Plaintiff‐Appellee,

v.

STEVEN CROSS,

Defendant‐Appellant.

Appeal from the United States District

Court for the Northern District of Illinois,

Eastern Division.

No. 99 CR 354‐1

Charles P. Kocoras,

Judge.

O R D E R

Fourteen years ago, while remanding his case for resentencing, we said that

Steven Cross was “a bad seed.”  United States v. Cross, 289 F.3d 476, 477 (7th Cir. 2002).

                                                 

* We have unanimously agreed to decide the case without oral argument because

the briefs and record adequately present the facts and legal arguments, and oral

argument would not significantly aid the court. FED. R. APP. P. 34(a)(2)(C).

NONPRECEDENTIAL DISPOSITION

To be cited only in accordance with Fed. R. App. P. 32.1

Case: 15-3836 Document: 20 Filed: 11/14/2016 Pages: 4
No. 15‐3836    Page 2

Cross, who had engaged in mail fraud by collecting payments for orders of Pokémon

cards and Beanie Babies that he never sent, was resentenced to 125 months’

imprisonment and 36 months’ supervised release. One condition of his supervised

release was that he not commit another crime. Shortly after beginning his supervised

release, he flouted that condition: he tried to buy a Chevrolet Camaro with a bounced

check. He also removed the electronic transmitter on his ankle without authorization,

which violated another supervised‐release condition. The probation officer petitioned

the district court to revoke Cross’s supervised release; the court ordered the revocation

after concluding that Cross had intended to defraud the Chevrolet dealership and

willfully violated the electronic‐monitoring condition. The court imposed an additional

24 months’ imprisonment. Cross filed a notice of appeal, but his appointed counsel

asserts that the appeal is frivolous and seeks to withdraw under Anders v. California,

386 U.S. 738 (1967).

At the outset we note that a defendant facing revocation of supervised release

does not have a constitutional right to counsel unless he challenges the appropriateness

of revocation or asserts substantial and complex grounds in mitigation. See United States

v. Boultinghouse, 784 F.3d 1163, 1171 (7th Cir. 2015); United States v. Eskridge, 445 F.3d

930, 932–33 (7th Cir. 2006). Cross did neither, so the Anders safeguards do not govern

our review of counsel’s motion to withdraw. See Pennsylvania v. Finley, 481 U.S. 551,

554–55 (1987); United States v. Wheeler, 814 F.3d 856, 857 (7th Cir. 2016) (per curiam).

Cross responded to counsel’s motion but does not oppose it. See CIR. R. 51(b). Counsel

has submitted a brief that explains the nature of the case and addresses the potential

issues that an appeal of this kind might be expected to involve. The analysis in counsel’s

brief appears to be thorough, so we focus our review on the subjects that counsel

discusses. See United States v. Bey, 748 F.3d 774, 776 (7th Cir. 2014); United States v.

Wagner, 103 F.3d 551, 553 (7th Cir. 1996).

Counsel first considers challenging the district court’s subject‐matter jurisdiction

to revoke Cross’s term of supervised release roughly three months after it expired. A

district court loses jurisdiction to revoke a defendant’s supervised‐release term after it

expires unless the following two conditions are met: (1) the court has issued a warrant

or summons by the last day of defendant’s term; and (2) the court’s delay in revoking

the defendant’s supervised release was “reasonably necessary” to adjudicate matters

related to violated conditions. 18 U.S.C. § 3583(i). But counsel correctly rejects

challenging the court’s jurisdiction because the court complied with the requirements of

Case: 15-3836 Document: 20 Filed: 11/14/2016 Pages: 4
No. 15‐3836    Page 3

§ 3583(i) to retain jurisdiction over the case: the court issued Cross a summons

approximately three weeks before his supervised‐release term expired, and the court

found it reasonably necessary to delay the revocation hearing for about three months

while Cross was hospitalized. See United States v. Ramos, 401 F.3d 111, 118 (2d Cir. 2005)

(the meaning of “reasonably necessary” is “relatively elastic” and depends on the

“legitimate interests of the defendant and the government”).  

Counsel also considers whether Cross might contest the district court’s personal

jurisdiction over him because he did not receive personal service of the summons as

required by Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure 4(c)(3)(B). The summons was accepted

instead by counsel on Cross’s behalf while he underwent medical treatment. But this

argument would be frivolous, as counsel rightly concludes, because Cross submitted to

the court’s exercise of jurisdiction over him by not contesting it at the revocation

hearing. See United States v. Marks, 530 F.3d 799, 810–11 (9th Cir. 2008).  

Counsel next examines and properly concludes that it would be frivolous for

Cross to challenge the sufficiency of the evidence supporting the revocation of his

supervised release. Regarding Cross’s theft by deception, the government presented

key testimony from the Chevrolet dealer who sold Cross the Camaro. This dealer said

that Cross signed a written purchase agreement and accepted delivery of the car, but

never paid for it. Despite knowing that the check would bounce, Cross gave the

dealership a check that he said would cover the car’s costs. As for the electronic‐

monitoring violation, Cross’s probation officer testified that Cross told him that his

ankle swelled, requiring him to remove the transmitter and go to Stroger Hospital. But

Cross did not provide the probation officer with documentation that he was admitted to

the hospital.

  

Counsel also considers whether Cross could raise a due‐process challenge that

the petition to revoke failed to specify the particular Illinois statute that he was alleged

to have violated. But counsel rejects this challenge as frivolous because the petition to

revoke need provide only enough information to put the defendant on notice of the

criminal conduct that prompted the petition, United States v. Lee, 795 F.3d 682, 686 (7th

Cir. 2015), and here the petition explicitly detailed Cross’s theft of the Camaro and

described his unauthorized removal of the electronic transmitter. Moreover, the

government’s statement of the case, filed five months before Cross’s revocation hearing,

Case: 15-3836 Document: 20 Filed: 11/14/2016 Pages: 4
No. 15‐3836    Page 4

identified 720 ILL. COMP. STAT. 5/16‐1(a)(2) as the particular Illinois statute that he

violated.   

Counsel also considers whether Cross could challenge the length of his

imprisonment. But counsel properly rejects that challenge as frivolous because Cross’s

imprisonment term did not exceed the maximum permitted by statute. United States v.

Vallar, 635 F.3d 271, 289 (7th Cir. 2011). Since Cross’s original conviction for mail fraud

constituted a Class D felony in 2001, the maximum prison term that the district court

could impose after revoking his supervised release was two years, see 18 U.S.C. §1341

(2000), 18 U.S.C. §§ 3559(a)(4), 3583(e)(3), and that duration was the exact term that the

court imposed.

Counsel next considers, but properly rejects, arguing that the district court

overstated the value of Camaro, which was returned in good condition to the

dealership, when the court weighed the proper punishment for Cross’s theft. As

counsel correctly concludes, it would be frivolous to argue that Cross’s responsibility be

limited only to the Camaro’s lost value during his possession of the car because

Illinois’s theft‐by‐deception statute classifies the theft according to the value of the

property stolen. 720  ILL. COMP. STAT. 5/16‐1(b)(5). Moreover, because the return of

stolen property is not a valid defense to theft by deception, see People v. Gant, 257 N.E.2d

181, 183 (Ill. App. Ct. 1970), counsel rightly rejects challenging the court’s decision at

sentencing to take into account the Camaro’s value.  

As a final matter, counsel weighs but rightly declines to dispute the

reasonableness of the term of reimprisonment. As required by § 3583(e), the court

considered the pertinent sentencing factors in 18 U.S.C. § 3553(a), including the nature

and circumstances of the violation (cataloging Cross’s fraudulent conduct and

concluding that “virtually anything important that [Cross] did in this case was false”),

his history and characteristics (noting that Cross preyed on vulnerable people), and the

need to protect the public from Cross’s scheming.  

Counsel’s motion to withdraw is GRANTED, and the appeal is DISMISSED.

Case: 15-3836 Document: 20 Filed: 11/14/2016 Pages: 4