Source: https://case-law.vlex.com/vid/838-f-3d-98-684244221
Timestamp: 2019-04-24 10:18:04+00:00

Document:
Following a guilty plea, defendant Troy Harris was convicted in 2001 in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York (Robert P. Patterson, Judge ) of conspiracy to traffic in narcotics, see 21 U.S.C. § § 841(b)(1)(A), 846, for which crime he was sentenced to 188 months' imprisonment and five years' supervised release. See United States v. Harris, No. 00-CR-00105 (RPP) (S.D.N.Y. Feb. 14, 2001), ECF No. 191.1 Harris now appeals from a judgment of the same court (Loretta A. Preska, Chief Judge ) entered on May 14, 2015, revoking his supervised release and imposing an additional prison term of 27 months based on a finding that he had engaged in new criminal conduct while on federal supervision, specifically, assault, as proscribed by New York Penal Law § 120.00(1), and narcotics distribution, in violation of New York Penal Law § 220.39. Harris challenges both grounds for revocation.
hearsay in making its preponderance finding tat he engaged in such new criminal conduct while on federal supervision.
On August 26, 2014, three years into Harris's supervision term, the United States Probation Department for the Southern District of New York (" Probation" ) filed a report notifying Judge Patterson that Harris had been arrested by the New York City Police Department (" NYPD" ) based on a recent complaint filed by a woman who stated that Harris had " struck her in the face with a closed fist after she confronted him for smacking her on her buttocks during an event they were attending." App'x 26.2 Probation reported that the offense--third-degree assault, see N.Y. Penal Law § 120.00(1)--represented a Class A misdemeanor and a Grade C violation of supervised release. Nevertheless, because the state case had been dismissed when the complainant declined to press criminal charges, Probation recommended that no action be taken with respect to Harris's federal supervision. The district court accepted the recommendation the following day, August 27, 2014.
Two months later, on November 14, 2014, Probation determined that Harris was in violation of the supervision condition requiring that he provide advance notice of any change in residence. On that day, Probation conducted an unannounced visit to Harris's reported residence, the apartment of his maternal aunt. Not only was Harris not present, but a search also revealed that he had " little to no belongings in the apartment." App'x 57. When Probation reached Harris by phone, he stated that he was at his uncle's apartment. After some initial hesitation, he provided the building's address but refused to identify the apartment number.
(2) failure to notify Probation of a change in residence, (3) selling narcotics in violation of state law, and (4) committing third-degree assault in violation of state law. The United States Marshal executed the warrant and produced Harris in court later that day. On consent, Harris was released pending a hearing on the violation charges, subject to additional supervision conditions of home detention and electronic monitoring.
On November 17, 2014, Probation formally petitioned for revocation of Harris's supervised release based on the four alleged violations. The petition advised that, insofar as one of the violations involved possession of narcotics, revocation was mandatory under 18 U.S.C. § 3583(g). Further, because (1) Harris had pleaded guilty to a Class A felony, (2) the alleged narcotics offense constituted a Grade A supervision violation, and (3) Harris had a Criminal History Category of II, his recommended Guidelines sentencing range for that violation was 27 to 33 months' imprisonment, see U.S.S.G. § 7B1.4--approximately half the statutory 5-year maximum, see 18 U.S.C. § 3583(e)(3). Probation explained that the other three allegations pertained to Grade C violations of supervision, which--given Harris's Criminal History Category of II--corresponded to a recommended Guidelines sentencing range of 4 to 10 months' imprisonment. See U.S.S.G. § 7B1.4. Probation recommended that Harris be sentenced to 4 months' imprisonment, the low end of this lesser range, to be followed by an additional one-year term of supervised release.

References: § 841
 v. 
 § 120
 § 220
 § 120
 § 3583
 § 7
 § 3583
 § 7