Opinion ID: 1470216
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Defendant Tureseo's Arrest and Trial

Text: In May 2006, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) was notified by the New York City Police Department that a previously deported alienlater identified as defendant Tureseohad been arrested on or about May 3, 2006. After reviewing the documents contained in Tureseo's immigration file, ICE agents attempted to locate him. They eventually found Tureseo at an address in Brooklyn, New York. When questioned by the agents at that apartment, however, Tureseo first claimed that his name was Danny Ortega. After being told that it's a crime to lie to federal agents, however, he conceded that he was, in fact, Juan Tureseo. Tureseo then admitted that he was born in El Salvador, that he had been deported from the United States before, that he did not have permission to reenter the United States, and that he knew it was illegal for him to reenter the United States. The agents arrested Tureseo, and upon a search, the agents found on him a New York State Learner's Permit in the name of Danny Ortega, as well as a New York State Benefit Identification Card in the name of Danny Ortega. Following his arrest, a grand jury returned an Indictment on August 10, 2006, charging Tureseo with illegal reentry into the United States after removal from the United States subsequent to a conviction for the commission of an aggravated felony. Philip Weinstein of the Federal Defenders of New York was initially appointed to represent Tureseo. Tureseo told Weinstein that he was, in fact, Danny Ortega, a United States citizen. Tureseo asked Weinstein to contact his wife, who would supply proof of his citizenship. Weinstein did so and received a copy of a birth certificate indicating the birth of Danny Ortega in Puerto Rico. Weinstein then forwarded the birth certificate to the United States Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York to obtain a dismissal of the illegal reentry charge. [1] On December 4, 2006, the grand jury returned a Superseding Indictment, charging Tureseo with illegal reentry, false claim of United States citizenship, and the knowing unauthorized use of a means of identification of another person during and in relation to his false claim of United States citizenship. At trial, the government called as a witness a person bearing the name of Danny Ortega. This person identified the information contained in the birth certificate produced by Tureseo as his own. He testified that the certificate listed his name, birthplace, mother's name, mother's birthplace, father's name, and father's birthplace. The government also called Margarita Ortiz, who was Ortega's mother. Ortiz testified that the contents of the birth certificate proffered by Tureseo pertained to her son, Danny Ortega. She confirmed Danny Ortega's birth date, his father's name, and her own name on the birth certificate. Ortiz testified that Tureseo was not her son. At trial, the District Court accepted the qualifications of the ICE agent who arrested Tureseo as a fingerprint expert. The agent testified that he had compared the fingerprints on the Warrant of Deportation for Juan Tureseo with the fingerprints that were taken from Tureseo at the time of his arrest. The result of that comparison was that the fingerprints from the Warrant of Deportation matched the fingerprints taken from Tureseo on the day of his arrest. Accordingly, the agent concluded that defendant Juan Tureseo, whom he had arrested in May 2006, was the same Juan Tureseo whom the government had deported in 1997. The agent also testified that he had performed a search of relevant immigration databases. According to the results of that search, Tureseo had never applied for or received permission to reenter the United States, he had never been a citizen of the United States, and he was never naturalized. The government and Tureseo made their closing arguments to the jury on January 25, 2007. The District Court proceeded to charge the jury the same day. With respect to the jury instructions, both the government and Tureseo had submitted requests, pursuant to Fed. R.Crim.P. 30(a), for specific jury charges. Tureseo requested, inter alia, that the jury be instructed on the aggravated identity theft charge of Count Three to include that the defendant knew at the time that he committed the offense that the identification in question belonged to another actual person. The District Court declined to accept both the government's and Tureseo's proposed jury charges, including Tureseo's proposed instruction on Count Three. The District Court charged the jury using its customary jury instructions for similar cases. As to Count Three, the District Court charged the jury as follows: [T]here is one more thing that you must decide and that is whether the government has proven beyond a reasonable doubt that during and in relation to the offense of making a false claim of citizenship, the defendant knowingly possessed or used without lawful authority a means of identification of another person. To act without lawful authority means to act without lawful authorization of the issuing government entity.... [I]dentification includes a birth certificate or driver's license or any identification number attached to those things. The means of identification must be that of an actual person. Immediately following the District Court's jury instructions, outside the presence of the jury, Tureseo renewed his request on Count Three that the District Court require the jury to find that the defendant knew at the time he committed the offense that the identification in question belonged to an actual person. The District Court again declined to charge the jury as proposed by Tureseo. Thereafter, with all but a small portion of the instructions completed, the District Court directed the jury to return on the morning of the next day.