Court Opinion

ID: 9951671
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2024-03-18 18:01:10.127812+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T14:41:59.719526
License: Public Domain

Case: 23-20581            Document: 78-1         Page: 1      Date Filed: 03/18/2024

           United States Court of Appeals
                for the Fifth Circuit
                                   ____________
                                                                             United States Court of Appeals
                                                                                      Fifth Circuit
                                    No. 23-20581
                                  Summary Calendar                                  FILED
                                  ____________                                March 18, 2024
                                                                               Lyle W. Cayce
United States of America,                                                           Clerk

                                                                    Plaintiff—Appellee,

                                          versus

Cyrus Kourosh Boujabadi,

                                            Defendant—Appellant.
                   ______________________________

                   Appeal from the United States District Court
                       for the Southern District of Texas
                            USDC No. 4:23-CR-430-1
                   ______________________________

Before Willett, Duncan, and Ramirez, Circuit Judges.
Per Curiam: *
       Cyrus Kourosh Boujabadi was charged with twenty-six counts of
various drug and money-laundering offenses. He appeals the district court’s
order of detention pending trial, currently scheduled for April 22, 2024.
       Boujabadi contends that the Government’s decision to oppose pretrial
release was vindictive because he exercised his Fifth Amendment right to
refuse to provide the passcode to his smartphone. He adds that he presented

       *
           This opinion is not designated for publication. See 5th Cir. R. 47.5.
Case: 23-20581         Document: 78-1      Page: 2     Date Filed: 03/18/2024

                                 No. 23-20581

a comprehensive pretrial-release plan that would have reasonably assured the
safety of the community and his appearance at trial.
       “Absent an error of law,” we will uphold a district court’s pretrial
detention order “if it is supported by the proceedings below,” a deferential
standard of review that we have previously analogized to an abuse-of-
discretion standard. United States v. Rueben, 974 F.2d 580, 586 (5th Cir. 1992)
(internal quotation marks and citation omitted). We assess whether “the
evidence as a whole supports the conclusions of the proceedings below,” id.,
and review fact findings for clear error, United States v. Aron, 904 F.2d 221,
223 (5th Cir. 1990).
       Reviewing the record as a whole under this deferential standard of
review, we conclude that Boujabadi is not entitled to relief. The district
court’s detention decision is specifically grounded in the § 3142(g) factors,
and there is ample evidence in the record to support its conclusions for each
of them. The district court noted, for example, that Boujabadi employed
multiple people to assist him in his drug-trafficking operation; that he
attempted to flee when law enforcement executed a search warrant on his
apartment; that drug trafficking was his sole source of income; that his drug-
trafficking offenses occurred while he was on community supervision
pursuant to a state-court order resulting from family violence; that he used a
straw purchaser to buy additional firearms while on community supervision;
that he laundered money while out on a bond for a state drug offense; that he
had made multiple trips out of the country in the past; that he had previously
stolen someone’s identity; that he had attempted to intimidate a government
witness; and that he was afraid of prison. All this evidence (and more) suffices
to support the district court’s conclusion that no condition or combination of
conditions would reasonably assure Boujabadi’s appearance at trial if he were
released beforehand. See 18 U.S.C. § 3142(e).

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 Case: 23-20581           Document: 78-1          Page: 3       Date Filed: 03/18/2024

                                       No. 23-20581

        We also see nothing in the district court’s analysis suggesting that the
denial of release pending trial punishes Boujabadi for the exercise of a
constitutional right. He cites no binding authority for this contention, and the
precedential authority he does cite addresses circumstances solely within the
prosecution’s discretion, not ultimately within the district court’s. See, e.g.,
Wade v. United States, 504 U.S. 181, 185 (1992) (substantial-assistance
motions); United States v. Goodwin, 457 U.S. 368, 375–82 (1982) (modifying
charges). 1 Further, we cannot say that the district court abused its discretion
by concluding that the psychiatric evidence and the proposed conditions fail
to rebut the presumption against release.
        The district court’s order of detention pending trial is accordingly
                                                                    AFFIRMED.

        1
           In its response to Boujabadi’s relatively robust argument under the Fifth
Amendment, which he raised below and which now spans almost his entire argument in his
memorandum in support of pretrial release, the government counters with just a few
citationless paragraphs, much of which repeat what was already recounted in prior sections
of its response. We have no independent obligation to look for reasons why the authority
Boujabadi cites is distinguishable, see United States v. Sineneng-Smith, 140 S. Ct. 1575, 1579
(2020), but we are likewise under no obligation to accept legal assertions as correct merely
because they are insufficiently rebutted, see Texas Democratic Party v. Abbott, 798 F.3d 168,
177–78 (5th Cir. 2020).

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