U.S.A v. Crawford
| Decision Date | 30 December 2009 |
| Docket Number | 1:96-CR-05127 OWW.,Nos. l:02-CV-06498 OWW,,s. l:02-CV-06498 OWW, |
| Citation | 680 F.Supp.2d 1177 |
| Parties | UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff, v. Mark E. CRAWFORD, Defendant. |
| Court | U.S. District Court — Eastern District of California |
COPYRIGHT MATERIAL OMITTED
Stephen R. Kahn, Law Offices of Stephen R. Kahn, Beverly Hills, CA, for Plaintiff.
Carl M. Faller, Carl M. Faller, Attorney at Law, Mark Eugene Cullers, U.S. Department of Justice, Fresno, CA, for Defendant.
Before the court for decision is Defendant Mark Crawford's ("Crawford" or "Petitioner") motion pursuant to Title 18 United States Code, section 2255 ("Petition"). Petitioner contends that he did not receive the effective assistance of counsel during his June 1999 trial, which resulted in a jury convicting him of racketeering racketeering conspiracy, murder in the aid of racketeering, kidnapping in the aid of racketeering, conspiracy, embezzlement from an employee welfare benefit plan, six counts of wire fraud, three counts of money laundering, obstruction of justice by killing a witness, obstruction of justice by retaliation against a witness (murder) threatening to commit a crime of violence against a witness, and three counts of perjury. Petitioner is currently incarcerated serving a life sentence.1 Doc. 720.2
Crawford's central contentions are that his lead trial counsel, Bill May: (1) was unprepared for trial and was impaired by physical, emotional, financial, and legal problems during trial; (2) failed to call a key defense witness, William Noel, who May indicated in his opening statement would testify; and (3) had an actual conflict of interest that adversely affected his representation of Petitioner. Crawford maintains that he received a constitutionally inadequate defense warranting a new trial.
The original Petition alleged that Petitioner's lead trial counsel, Bill May, was ineffective in seven respects: (1) May failed to secure the attendance of a key defense witness, William Noel, who purportedly would have testified to a conspiracy to frame Petitioner for the murder of Nick Brueggen; (2) May failed to adequately prepare for trial, having admitted as much to Petitioner; (3) May suffered "overwhelming personal and financial problems" compromising counsel's duty of loyalty and creating a conflict of interest (4) May suffered financial, emotional, and psychological problems contributing to his ineffectiveness as trial counsel; (5) May slept through certain portions of the trial proceedings; (6) May failed to offer Petitioner's sons' school attendance records into evidence to corroborate Petitioner's alibi defense; and (7) May failed to object to the prosecution's closing argument that Petitioner's sons were at school all day on the day of the murder. Doc. 812.
Several preliminary, evidentiary matters were determined by separate Memorandum Decision. Doc. 932. Petitioner's reply brief ("Reply") included numerous factual claims that were not discussed in the original petition, namely, that: (1) May failed to call other key witness; (2) May failed to call expert witnesses; and (3) arguments pertaining to May's disciplinary records. l:02-cv-06498, Doc. 7-1. Petitioner moved to expand the record with materials submitted as exhibits to the Reply relating to these new factual claims. Id., Doc. 9. The government opposed this motion in part and moved to strike certain portions of Crawford's Reply, along with certain exhibits thereto, as time-barred. Doc. 920.
The Reply was construed as a motion to amend the Petition subject to the relation back doctrine. Doc. 932 at 6-7. The motion to amend was granted as to evidence pertaining to May's alleged failure to call Petitioner's sons' Principal as a witness, id at 21-22, but denied as to all other evidence regarding May's failure to call other witnesses, including fact witnesses Todd Houston, Robert Weekley, and Amber Miller, id. at 15-17, and several purported expert witnesses, id. at 18-21. The government's motion to strike newly offered evidence pertaining to May's disciplinary record was granted on the ground that the offered evidence did not reflect a pervasive pattern of conduct or conduct related to May's alleged failure to prepare for trials and/or the allegation that May operated under a conflict of interest. Id. at 22-24.
Defendant also moved to produce certain Criminal Justice Act ("CJA") billing records and CJA 20 forms submitted by May in the context of the underlying criminal trial. The billing records were requested because Plaintiff believed they would help establish that May was unprepared for trial. l:02-cv-06498, Doc. 8. The CJA 20 forms require counsel to disclose under penalty of perjury any outside income earned during the course of a CJAfunded representation. Crawford alleges that May never informed the CJA Panel Administrator of certain private compensation he was receiving during the trial and suggests that this failure, if proven, might undermine May's credibility. Defendant's motion was granted as to the CJA 20 Forms, but denied as to the billing records, because the billing records would shed no additional light on Petitioner's allegations. Doc. 932 at 25-26. The CJA Panel Administrator produced the CJA 20 forms and the parties were permitted to and did, submit supplemental briefs concerning those records. Id. at 27; Docs. 937 & 939.
The court heard oral argument on the Petition before its submission.
III. FACTUAL BACKGROUND. A. Overview of the Enterprise.
The charges in this case relate to the organized crime activities of a racketeering enterprise known as the "Family," which was based in Southeast Texas and led by Petitioner, the former mayor of Ingleside, Texas. The charged members of the Family were defendant Mark E. Crawford, Frank R. Bochicchio, John R. Crawford (Defendant's brother), Mike Beckcom, Kirk A. Johnson, David Franco, George N. "Nick" Brueggen, Juan P. Galvan, and others. The evidence at trial established that Mark Crawford was the leader of the Family, and that he gave other members large, distinctive gold rings, with the Chinese symbol for "family" emblazoned on them. Reporter's Transcript of Trial ("R.T.") at 775-76 (Sipila). The ring symbolized loyalty, both to each other and to Family boss Mark Crawford. Id.; R.T. 2632:22-23 (Beckcom). The ring also meant that "anybody who fucks with the Family is going to fucking pay." R.T. 776:14-15 (Sipila).
The Family members' crimes, as charged in the indictment and proven at trial, fall into four main categories:
(1) Operation of a phony health insurance company, "Viking Casualty Company," which defrauded health plan participant victims in and around Fresno, California;
(2) Operation of multiple employee staff leasing companies in southeast Texas and in Gulfport, Mississippi, which defrauded their clients and the IRS;
(3) Operation of a phony "Builder's Home Warranty" insurance company in southeast Texas, with victims in Colorado and elsewhere; and
(4) Kidnapping and murder of one of the Family's own members, Nick Brueggen, after he began to cooperate with federal law enforcement authorities in the Eastern District of California conducting a grand jury investigation into Viking Casualty Company.
B. The Viking Casualty Company Scam.
Count One's racketeering predicate acts one (embezzlement from an employee welfare benefit plan), two (wire fraud), three (money laundering), and four (money laundering conspiracy) all pertain to Mark Crawford's participation in a fraudulent insurance company with John Crawford, George Brueggen, Harry Clift, and others. See Second Superseding Indictment, Doc. 88 at 2-13.
From the fall of 1992 through 1995, a company called Ararat International Administrators ("Ararat") operated in Fresno, California. R.T. 281 (Rodriguez). Ararat was a third party administrator of health insurance plans for small businesses. R.T. 280. Ararat accepted premiums from small business clients and, after deducting administrative fees, forwarded the premiums to an insurance carrier for underwriting to provide health benefits for plan participants (employees of the businesses). R.T. 281.
In late 1992, Ararat was looking for an insurance company to serve as its underwriter. R.T. 282. Insurance brokers Jarman Holland and James Carroll, of Tennessee, helped Ararat find Viking Casualty Company ("Viking"), based in Corpus Christi, Texas. R.T. 316-20 (Carroll). During the search for Viking, James Carroll spoke initially with defendants George N. Brueggen and Harry E. "Skip" Clift, who represented themselves as representatives of Viking. R.T. 321. Both Brueggen and Clift told Carroll that Viking was willing to take over the risk and assume the business forwarded by Ararat. R.T. 321-22.
On March 25, 1993, Carroll and Holland acting as representatives of Ararat, traveled to Corpus Christi to meet with Viking officials and finalize the arrangements for Viking to assume the Ararat block of business. R.T. 338. Mark Crawford and his brother John Crawford met Carroll and Holland at the airport, and brought them to what the Crawfords represented was Viking's headquarters. Id. Brueggen and Harry Clift were brought in to the meeting and introduced as Viking executives. R.T. 340-41, 343. Ararat and Viking agreed in writing that Viking would assume health benefit underwriting for Ararat's clients. R.T. 343-44. The agreement called for Ararat to collect health insurance premiums and keep 22.5% for its administrative fees and costs. R.T. 347. Ararat was also to keep 40% of the premiums collected to pay small claims, and remit the balance (minus agents' fees) to Viking. R.T. 34748. This amount remitted to Viking was approximately 30% of premiums collected. Id. The money, held in a trust account in Tennessee, R.T. 348, was to be wire transferred to...
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