United States v. Kimble

• Decision Date: 02 May 2017
• Docket Number: No. 15-4672,15-4672
• Citation: 855 F.3d 604
• Parties: UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff–Appellee, v. Karen KIMBLE, a/k/a Karen Kimble Mamah, a/k/a Karen Mamah, Defendant–Appellant.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Fourth Circuit

855 F.3d 604

UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff–Appellee,

v.Karen KIMBLE, a/k/a Karen Kimble Mamah, a/k/a Karen Mamah, Defendant–Appellant.

No. 15-4672

United States Court of Appeals, Fourth Circuit.

Argued: March 24, 2017

Decided: May 2, 2017

ARGUED: Vincent Anthony Jankoski, VINCENT A. JANKOSKI, ESQ., Silver Spring, Maryland, for Appellant. Kathleen O'Connell Gavin, OFFICE OF THE UNITED STATES ATTORNEY, Baltimore, Maryland, for Appellee. ON BRIEF: Rod J. Rosenstein, United States Attorney, OFFICE OF THE UNITED STATES ATTORNEY, Baltimore, Maryland, for Appellee.

Before TRAXLER and WYNN, Circuit Judges, and DAVIS, Senior Circuit Judge.

Affirmed by published opinion. Judge Wynn wrote the opinion, in which Judge Traxler and Senior Judge Davis joined.

WYNN, Circuit Judge:

Following a two-day bench trial, the district court convicted Defendant Karen Kimble of numerous charges stemming from her submission of fraudulent immigration and tax filings to various state and federal agencies over a nearly five-year span. Seeking to overturn her conviction, Defendant argues that the district court erred in admitting certain evidence obtained following a search of her home pursuant to a validly issued warrant. For the reasons set forth below, we conclude that the district court correctly admitted this evidence, which—together with additional evidence offered at trial—provided sufficient support for the trial court's guilty verdict on each of the government's charges against Defendant. Accordingly, we affirm.

I.

A.

A summary of the facts proven at trial, as found by the district court, follows. Between 2007 and 2011, Defendant perpetrated a series of schemes that ultimately led to her indictment on charges ranging from tax and visa application fraud to aggravated identity theft. First, in the fall of 2007, Defendant participated in a marriage and immigration fraud scheme with Tamim Mamah, a native of Ghana. According to the government, after Mamah's earlier attempt to obtain a green card by means of a fraudulent marriage failed, Defendant filed, under Mamah's first wife's name, for a divorce from Mamah. Thereafter, Defendant submitted a new green card application on Mamah's behalf using a marriage certificate listing herself as Mamah's wife.

During roughly the same period, in September 2007, Defendant committed perjury in connection with her testimony in the criminal trial of Mamah's brother, who was charged with importing heroin in his luggage on a flight from Ghana. At that trial, Defendant testified that she traveled with Mamah's brother to Ghana in 2006. In particular, Defendant testified that, during that trip, she observed numerous individuals visit the brother's home, which she asserted was customary in Ghana. The defense relied on Defendant's testimony as evidence that someone other than Mamah's brother packed his luggage and placed the heroin in his bag. However, a subsequent review of Defendant's travel records revealed that she did not travel to Africa during the period in question.

Finally, beginning in February 2008 and continuing through at least April 2012, Defendant submitted numerous fraudulent tax returns for herself and others. In addition to inflating her own refunds, Defendant—who falsely held herself out as a certified tax preparer—filed returns on behalf of others that included artificially inflated credits and deductions. Defendant provided the taxpayers with versions of the returns that did not include the inflated figures and kept the excess refunds, which totaled roughly $222,000. During the course of her tax fraud scheme, Defendant committed identity theft on at least four occasions.

B.

In July 2011, the Department of Homeland Security ("Homeland Security") obtained a search warrant in connection with its investigation of Defendant's marriage and immigration fraud and perjury. In an accompanying affidavit, the government asserted probable cause to believe that Defendant's home contained evidence of perjury, marriage and immigration fraud, and false statements, in violation of 18 U.S.C. §§ 1001, 1425, 1621, and 1623 and 8 U.S.C. § 1325(c). Entitled "Items to be Seized from [Defendant's Residence]," Attachment B to the warrant affidavit averred that the requested search would enable the government to seize "[a]ny and all records and documents relating to the travel of [Defendant] to Ghana in 2006 including but not limited to ... documents, correspondence, notes, statements, receipts or other records that reference or indicate the fraudulent activity [and] items evidencing the obtaining, secreting, transferring, concealment and/or expenditure of illegal proceeds and currency to include cash." J.A. 46.

Homeland Security agents executed the search warrant on July 29, 2011. At the beginning of the search, the agents asked Defendant if she had any valuables in the house, to which Defendant replied that there was some cash in a laundry basket. Defendant then led the agents to the cash, which was contained in a bag in a laundry basket in the home and totaled more than $41,000. When the agents inquired as to the source of the funds, Defendant told the agents that the cash did not belong to her. Rather, she said that, at Mamah's request, she had retrieved the cash from a stranger about a week earlier and was holding it for Mamah. Aware Mamah was detained on unrelated narcotics distribution charges, the agents seized the cash on suspicion that it derived from Mamah's alleged drug activity.

Several months later, Defendant filed a claim to recover the seized funds. At odds with the explanation she gave at the time of the initial seizure, Defendant claimed that the cash was proceeds of an insurance claim she filed after her home was damaged in a fire. Their suspicions piqued by Defendant's revised account, investigators subpoenaed Defendant's bank records in an attempt to confirm the source of the seized funds. After reviewing the records, however, investigators found numerous deposits from the Internal Revenue Service, which they later determined to be the inflated refunds obtained through Defendant's tax fraud scheme.

After further investigation, the government charged Defendant in a twenty-one-count indictment with: (1) six counts of wire fraud, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1343 ; (2) five counts of making a false statement on a tax return, in violation of 26 U.S.C. § 7206(1) ; (3) five counts of aiding and assisting in the making of a false tax return, in violation of 26 U.S.C. § 7206(2) ; (4) four counts of aggravated identity theft, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1028A ; and (5) one count of visa application fraud, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1546(a).¹

On May 1, 2013, Defendant moved to suppress all evidence obtained as a result of the July 2011 search of her home. Specifically, Defendant argued that the warrant supporting that search addressed only the government's then-current investigation of her alleged perjury, such that much of the property seized during the search (in particular, the more-than $41,000 in cash) exceeded the scope of the warrant. In Defendant's view, because the cash was improperly seized, any evidence obtained as result of her subsequent efforts to reclaim the seized funds (i.e. , bank records and other tax records documenting Defendant's submission of fraudulent tax returns) amounted to "fruit" of the illegal seizure and therefore was subject to exclusion at trial. After Defendant waived her right to a jury trial, the district court elected to hear evidence and argument regarding the suppression motion at trial.

A two-day bench trial followed, during which the district court heard testimony from Defendant's alleged victims and officials from the various federal agencies involved in the investigations that precipitated Defendant's prosecution. Among those witnesses, Homeland Security Special Agent Eli Bupp testified that, in executing the search of Defendant's residence, agents sought to obtain "[d]ocuments and evidence related to marriage fraud [and] visa fraud, [and other] travel documents." J.A. 69. Bupp characterized the heading in Attachment B, which focused on documents and records relating to Defendant's purported travel to Ghana, as a "drafting error" that was not meant to limit the scope of the search. J.A. 70. The government also emphasized that the affidavit supporting the warrant included representations regarding the government's basis for believing that Defendant not only committed perjury, but also committed visa and marriage fraud and made false statements to authorities.

At the close of evidence, Defendant moved for judgment of acquittal pursuant to Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure 29. Defendant subsequently withdrew her Rule 29 motion as to the immigration fraud charge, and the district court denied Defendant's motion as to the remaining charges. The district court further denied Defendant's motion to suppress the evidence obtained as a result of the July 2011 search and, in a comprehensive written opinion, convicted Defendant on all counts. The district court later sentenced Defendant to a total of 48 months' incarceration, prompting this timely appeal.

II.

Defendant raises two issues on appeal. First, she argues that the district court erred in denying her motion to suppress the more-than $41,000 in cash seized from her home in the course of the July 2011 search, as well as any incriminating evidence obtained as a result of that initial seizure. Second, Defendant challenges the denial of her post-trial motion for judgment of acquittal on the government's wire and tax fraud charges. We consider these proposed grounds for reversal in turn.

A.

We turn first to the parties' evidentiary dispute. Defendant does not challenge the validity of the warrant authorizing the search of her home in July 2011. Instead, Defendant argues that the valid warrant did not permit the agents to seize the cash found in the laundry basket. Defendant's challenge thus calls on us to consider whether the seizure...