Opinion ID: 596393
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 7

Heading: Double Jeopardy in Reed's case

Text: 43 Reed alleges that his double jeopardy rights have been violated because he was subjected to a CCE prosecution after he had already been convicted of a section 963 conspiracy. The government, in return, argues that the latter prosecution is not barred because the government alleged and proved acts occurring after the conspiracy dates involved in Reed's section 963 conviction. 44 In effect, the government is attempting to invoke the Brown exception that permits multiple prosecutions if all events necessary to the greater crime have not taken place at the time of the prosecution for the lesser is begun. Jeffers, 432 U.S. at 137, 97 S.Ct. at 2216 (citing Brown, 432 U.S. at 169 n. 7, 97 S.Ct. at 2227 n. 7; Diaz, 223 U.S. at 448-49, 32 S.Ct. at 251). Courts have not stated explicitly whether the time of prosecution refers to the date the indictment is returned or to the date trial begins. We believe, however, that this Brown exception applies to events occurring after trial has begun on the lesser crime but not to events occurring before this date. 6 45 The Lehder/Reed trial proved a conspiracy transpiring between 1978 and 1980. In contrast, in this case the government alleged a CCE occurring between the years of 1974 and 1989. The government's indictment pointed to two specific acts committed by Reed after 1980: 1) a conversation in Panama in the fall of 1986 between Reed and an undercover policeman concerning the transportation of cocaine into the United States through Mexico and 2) a related discussion between Reed and Mejia, a major drug conspiracy organizer, concerning the building of a cocaine storage facility in Arizona. The government's briefs refer to a third act, not mentioned in the indictment, involving Reed's 1985 attempt to get a woman named Diane Thornhill to recruit cocaine distributors. 7 The government argues that Reed waived any future double jeopardy claims when he voluntarily committed further criminal acts beyond the dates alleged in the first indictment. See Garrett, 471 U.S. at 790, 792, 105 S.Ct. at 2417, 2418 (One who insists that the music stop and the piper be paid at a particular point must at least have stopped dancing himself before he may seek such an accounting.). 46 The indictment in Reed's first prosecution was charged on September 18, 1981, but Reed was not arrested until February 1987. The six month trial in that case did not commence until late 1987. Because of the delay in Reed's prosecution under the 1981 indictment, the additional acts involved in the CCE allegation occurred at least one year prior to the first day of trial in that prosecution. In contrast, the government's subsequent prosecutions in Garrett and Diaz included evidence of acts and elements occurring after the initial prosecutions were begun. Garrett was indicted on a CCE charge which included allegations of acts occurring after he pleaded guilty to the substantive charge of importation. Garrett, 471 U.S. at 788, 105 S.Ct. at 2416. At the time of Diaz' trial for assault and battery the victim had not yet died. Therefore, the homicide had not been committed at the time of the prior prosecution. Diaz, 223 U.S. at 448-49, 32 S.Ct. at 251. In the case at hand, all acts in furtherance of the CCE occurred prior to Reed's prosecution for conspiracy to import. Therefore, the government cannot invoke here, as it did in Garrett and Diaz, the Brown exception to the double jeopardy bar based on acts committed after prosecution for the earlier offense. 47 Similarly, the government cannot rely on the second Brown exception to the double jeopardy bar because it has not shown that the facts necessary to the greater were not discovered despite the exercise of due diligence before the first trial. Jeffers, 432 U.S. at 151, 97 S.Ct. at 2216 (emphasis added); see also Diaz, 223 U.S. at 448-49, 32 S.Ct. at 251; Stricklin, 591 F.2d at 1123. It is the government's responsibility to rebut the presumption of a double jeopardy violation. Stricklin, 591 F.2d at 1124. Yet the government has offered no evidence that it was unaware of the 1985 and 1986 alleged acts at the time of the Lehder/Reed trial. In fact, the government must have been very familiar with the 1986 acts given that these acts involved one of its own undercover police officers, and the 1985 acts occurred a full two years before the Lehder/Reed trial began. 8 It is true that: 48 The attachment of jeopardy to one conspiracy prosecution under § 846 [or § 963] does not insulate a defendant from prosecution for conducting a continuing criminal enterprise in violation of § 848 if the government has evidence of a separate conspiracy with which to satisfy the in concert element of § 848. 49 Stricklin, 591 F.2d at 1124 (emphasis added); accord Boldin, 772 F.2d at 731. The government, however, did not present any evidence of Reed's participation in a separate conspiracy. In Count 7, the indictment charged Reed with violating 21 U.S.C. § 848 by: 50 knowingly, wilfully and intentionally [engaging] in a continuing criminal enterprise in that he did violate Title 21, United States Code, Section 841, 846, 952 and 963, which violations were part of a continuing series of violations of said statutes undertaken by the defendant in concert with at least five other persons, with respect to whom the defendant occupied a position of organizer, supervisor and manager, which violations include the violations set forth in Count One of this Indictment, the violations described in Overt Acts 38, 47, 56, 72 and 75 thereof, and a conspiracy to import cocaine into the United States occurring from in or about January 1978 through in or about September 1980, and from which continuing series of violations the defendant obtained substantial income and resources. 51 (emphasis added). The overt acts mentioned in the indictment refer to a series of flights from March 1978 through April 1979 between Norman's Cay and the United States or Colombia. 9 It is obvious that the indictment includes the events constituting the original importation conspiracy. Reed, however, has already been convicted under section 963, and the government is barred from using the agreement underlying that crime to prove the in concert requirement of 848. Boldin, 772 F.2d at 731. 52 The government has alleged one conspiracy separate from that involved in the prior prosecution, namely a conspiracy to distribute, complementing the conspiracy to import. But this allegation alone is not evidence of a separate agreement. Indeed, the Supreme Court has stated to the contrary that a single narcotics conspiracy or agreement may constitute the separate offenses of conspiracy to import marijuana and conspiracy to distribute marijuana without violating the double jeopardy clause. Albernaz, 450 U.S. at 339-44, 101 S.Ct. at 1142-45; Boldin, 772 F.2d at 726-27. Without more evidence of an additional, separate agreement, the government was barred from prosecuting Reed for the specific CCE alleged. 53 Not only has the government failed to prove a separate agreement, it has taken the contrary position, arguing that only one agreement underlay the entire fifteen year importation and distribution enterprise. In the section of its brief addressing the variance claim, the government points out that: 54 [A]fter proper instruction on single versus multiple conspiracies, the jury concluded that only the charged single conspiracies existed.... 55 ... The Indictment in this case charged an enterprise established to transport cocaine from producers in Colombia to the United States and to distribute it as directed by the producers.... The enterprise was implemented through an importation conspiracy and a distribution conspiracy. Throughout the period of these importation and distribution conspiracies, the goals of the participants remained the same.... The nature of the scheme also remained constant.... Finally the core participants in the conspiracies remained constant.... 56 Brief of Appellee at 51-52. Consequently, the government undercuts its position on the double jeopardy issue by arguing that a single agreement underlay the entire Reed endeavor between the years of 1978 and 1987. 57 Based on the above arguments, we hold that the government has violated Reed's double jeopardy rights. The government neither alleged nor proved an agreement separate from or independent of the 1978-1980 agreement for which Reed has already been prosecuted.