Opinion ID: 687589
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Sicurella's Motion for a Severance

Text: 52 Sicurella argues that the government acted improperly by bringing a superseding indictment to circumvent Magistrate Judge Foschio's order severing the original indictment. Consequently, he argues that the district court should have internally severed Count One of the second superseding indictment, so that the mail fraud conspiracy count would be tried with the Second and Third Counts, and the destruction of government property conspiracy count would be tried separately with the Fourth and Fifth counts. He also argues that the district court should then have severed Counts Two and Three from Counts Four and Five, so that he could testify about his car in a trial on Counts Two and Three. We disagree with Sicurella across the board. 53 Sicurella relies on three cases to support his claim that the government's alleged improper motive in bringing a superseding indictment requires a new trial: United States v. Vanwort, 887 F.2d 375 (2d Cir.1989), cert. denied sub nom. Chapoteau v. United States, 495 U.S. 906, 110 S.Ct. 1927, 109 L.Ed.2d 290 (1990), and cert. denied sub nom. DaSilva v. United States, 495 U.S. 910, 110 S.Ct. 1936, 109 L.Ed.2d 299 (1990); In re Grand Jury Subpoena Duces Tecum Dated Jan. 2, 1985 (Simels), 767 F.2d 26, 29 (2d Cir.1985); and United States v. Dardi, 330 F.2d 316 (2d Cir.), cert. denied, 379 U.S. 845, 869, 85 S.Ct. 50, 117, 13 L.Ed.2d 50 (1964). All three cases involved claims of government abuse of the grand jury process. These cases stand for the unremarkable proposition that it is  ' improper to utilize a Grand Jury for the sole or dominating purpose of preparing an already pending indictment for trial. '  Vanwort, 887 F.2d at 387 (quoting In re Grand Jury, 767 F.2d at 29 (quoting Dardi, 330 F.2d at 336)). By bringing a superseding indictment, the government here was not preparing an already pending indictment for trial. Rather, it was ensuring that it could try at the same time before the same jury the crimes relating to the arson of Sicurella's car and the government car. 54 Moreover, given the adversarial nature of pretrial criminal practice, a prosecutor should remain free before trial to exercise the broad discretion entrusted to him to determine the extent of the societal interest in prosecution. United States v. Goodwin, 457 U.S. 368, 382, 102 S.Ct. 2485, 2493, 73 L.Ed.2d 74 (1982). Provided the prosecutor acted with probable cause to believe that Sicurella committed the crimes with which he was charged in the superseding indictment--and Sicurella does not argue the prosecutor lacked probable cause--the prosecutor's decision regarding what charges to bring before the grand jury rested entirely within his discretion. See Bordenkircher v. Hayes, 434 U.S. 357, 364, 98 S.Ct. 663, 668-69, 54 L.Ed.2d 604 (1978). 55 In addition, a prosecutor abuses his charging discretion if his decision to charge springs solely from the defendant's exercise of a protected legal right, rather than the prosecutor's normal assessment of the societal interest in prosecution. Goodwin, 457 U.S. at 380 n. 11, 102 S.Ct. at 2492 n. 11. The prosecutor admitted that he brought a superseding indictment in part because he did not wish to try the two arson offenses separately. Were this the only reason, we might have a different case. 56 The government, however, has also advanced another reason. Before the first motion for severance was granted, Oliver had pled guilty and given the government a statement describing a single, larger conspiracy than the government had known when bringing the original indictment. At oral argument before the magistrate judge, the prosecutor stated he would have sought a superseding indictment, whether or not the original indictment was severed. The magistrate judge relied on this statement in finding that the government was well within its discretion to seek a superseding indictment in order to present to the grand jury this new information. Because the magistrate judge was in a better position than we to assess the prosecutor's credibility, we decline to hold that this second reason was a post hoc justification. 57 Finally, a defendant seeking to overturn a denial of a severance motion must show that he was so severely prejudiced by a joint trial that it would in effect deny him a fair trial. United States v. Burke, 700 F.2d 70, 83 (2d Cir.) (quoting United States v. Rucker, 586 F.2d 899, 902 (2d Cir.1978)), cert. denied, 464 U.S. 816, 104 S.Ct. 72, 78 L.Ed.2d 85 (1983). Sicurella has made no such showing of prejudice in his brief, nor can we find any in the record. 58 Accordingly, the district court did not err in refusing to sever the second superseding indictment.