U.S. v. Johnson, s. CR 00-3034-MWB, CR 01-3046-MWB.

• Decision Date: 21 June 2002
• Docket Number: Nos. CR 00-3034-MWB, CR 01-3046-MWB.,s. CR 00-3034-MWB, CR 01-3046-MWB.
• Parties: UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff, v. Angela JOHNSON, Defendant.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Northern District of Iowa

Page 982

225 F.Supp.2d 982

UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff, v. Angela JOHNSON, Defendant.

Nos. CR 00-3034-MWB, CR 01-3046-MWB.

United States District Court, N.D. Iowa, Central Division.

June 21, 2002.

Patrick J. Reinert, Charles J. Williams, U.S. Attorney's Office, Northern District of Iowa, Cedar Rapids, IA, for Plaintiff.

Alfred E. Willett, Terpstra, Epping & Willett, Cedar Rapids, IA, Dean A. Stowers, Rosenberg Law Firm, Des Moines, IA, Thomas P. Frerichs, Frerichs Law Office PC, Waterloo, IA, Patrick J. Berrigan, Watson & Dameron, LLP, Kansas City, MO, Robert R. Rigg, Des Moines, IA, for Defendant.

MEMORANDUM OPINION AND ORDER REGARDING APPEALS OF ORDERS BY MAGISTRATE JUDGE

BENNETT, Chief Judge.

                TABLE OF CONTENTS
                I.  INTRODUCTION ............................................................. 984
                    A. Indictments, Arrest, And Incarceration ................................ 984
                    B. The Motion For A Bill Of Particulars .................................. 986
                    C. The Motion For Transfer To A Different Facility ....................... 987
                II. LEGAL ANALYSIS ........................................................... 987
                    A. Standard of Review .................................................... 988
                    B. Appeal Of The Ruling On Johnson's Motion For A Bill Of Particulars..... 989
                

                1. Arguments of the parties ........................................... 988
                       2. Applicable standards ............................................... 990
                          a. Rule 7(f) ....................................................... 990
                          b. Purpose of a bill of particulars ................................ 990
                          c. When is a bill of particulars appropriate? ...................... 991
                          d. Other circumstances making a bill of particulars unnecessary..... 994
                       3. Did Judge Zoss apply the wrong legal standard? ..................... 995
                       4. Was Judge Zoss's order clearly erroneous? .......................... 995
                          a. Order to identify co-conspirators, supervisees, and supervisors . 995
                          b. Failure to order further disclosures ............................1001
                    C. Appeal Of The Ruling Denying Johnson's Motion For Transfer ............1004
                       1. Arguments of the parties ...........................................1004
                       2. Interference with counsel and preparation of defense ...............1005
                       3. Conditions of confinement ..........................................1007
                III. CONCLUSION ..............................................................1008
                

This matter comes before the court pursuant to appeals of two orders of a magistrate judge. First, both parties appeal an order of the magistrate judge granting in part and denying in part the defendant's motion for a bill of particulars concerning the charges in the second indictment against her. Those charges are five counts of killing witnesses while engaging in a drug-trafficking conspiracy, and five counts of killing witnesses in furtherance of a continuing criminal enterprise (CCE). Second, the defendant appeals the magistrate judge's order denying her motions, in both cases against her, for transfer to a different facility. The defendant sought such a transfer, because she asserted that incarceration in the present facility imposes excessive travel on her attorneys, thus interfering with her ability to help prepare her defense, and that the present facility also impressibly subjects her, as a pretrial detainee, to conditions amounting to "punishment." On the appeals of the parties, the court must determine whether the magistrate judge's decisions were clearly erroneous or contrary to law.

I. INTRODUCTION

A. Indictments, Arrest, And Incarceration

Defendant Angela Johnson is being held in the Linn County Jail pending trial on two separate indictments involving charges that grew out of a continuing investigation of the criminal conduct, including drug trafficking, of Johnson's sometime boyfriend, Dustin Honken, and his associates. The first seven-count indictment against Johnson, in Case No. CR 00-3034-MWB, filed on July 26, 2000, charges her with five counts of aiding and abetting the murder of witnesses, one count of aiding and abetting the solicitation of the murder of witnesses, and one count of conspiracy to interfere with witnesses.¹ The second indictment

PAGE CONTAINED FOOTNOTES

against Johnson, in Case No. CR 01-3046-MWB, filed on August 30, 2001, charges her with five counts of killing witnesses while engaging in a drug-trafficking conspiracy, and five counts of killing witnesses in furtherance of a continuing criminal enterprise (CCE).²

Johnson was arrested on July 30, 2000, by officers with the Iowa Department of Criminal Investigation (DCI) on a warrant issued pursuant to the first indictment against her. She has been incarcerated since that time. Although Johnson was originally held in the Benton County Jail, she has now been incarcerated in the Linn County Jail for more than a year-and-a-half.

B. The Motion For A Bill Of Particulars

On October 18, 2001, Johnson filed a motion for a bill of particulars regarding the ten counts in the second indictment against her. In that motion, Johnson argued that the government should be required to provide the following information to advise her adequately of the charges against her: the names of all known co-conspirators; the specific time, place, and locations of overt acts comprising the alleged drug-trafficking conspiracy; the time, place, and location of the overt acts allegedly comprising the CCE violation; the names of her alleged supervisees on the CCE charges; and whether she is charged as an aider and abettor or as a supervisor, manager, or organizer. The government resisted Johnson's motion in its entirety on October 26, 2001, arguing, in essence, that its "open file" discovery policy more than satisfied any supposed deficiencies in the statement of the ten charges in the second indictment against Johnson. The government argued, as well, that Johnson was attempting to use a bill of particulars as a tool for discovery, which is impressible.

Pursuant to an administrative order in this district, Johnson's motion for a bill of particulars was referred to Magistrate Judge Paul A. Zoss pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 636(b)(1)(A). Judge Zoss held a hearing on the motion on November 7, 2001, and issued his ruling the next day. Judge Zoss wrote,

Primarily, the court finds the Government has gone "above and beyond" its duty merely to disclose discovery materials to Johnson, and has made every effort to provide her counsel with the materials necessary to prepare Johnson's case. That being said, however, the court finds the very gravity of the charges against Johnson warrants more than the bare bones indictment provides, and more specificity than Johnson and her counsel can glean from poring through many thousands of pages of discovery materials. Therefore, the court grants in part and denies in part Johnson's motion for a bill of particulars.

Order On Motion For Bill Of Particulars (November 8, 2001), 7 (emphasis in the original). More specifically, Judge Zoss concluded that Johnson was not entitled to the information that she requested regarding "overt acts," on either the conspiracy or CCE charges, and that the government need not specify whether Johnson is being charged as an aider and abettor or as a principal, because the distinction is irrelevant here. He therefore denied Johnson's motion for a bill of particulars as to these kinds of information. However, Judge Zoss granted Johnson's motion for a bill of particulars to the extent that he ordered the government to specify, as to the drug conspiracy counts, the names of all known but unindicted co-conspirators, and, as to the CCE counts, all known supervisees, supervisors, managers, or organizers.

Neither party was happy with this resolution of Johnson's motion for a bill of particulars. The government appealed Judge Zoss's order on November 15, 2001, and Johnson filed her appeal on November 16, 2001. The government ultimately filed a brief in support of its appeal and in response to Johnson's appeal on December 19, 2001.

C. The Motion For Transfer To A Different Facility

The other ruling now on appeal to this court is Judge Zoss's denial of Johnson's April 24, 2002, "Motion, Pursuant to 18 U.S.C. § 3142(i), for Transfer to a Different Facility." Johnson has moved for a transfer to a different facility three times since her indictment in these cases, but Judge Zoss has denied all three of those motions. Only Judge Zoss's denial of the latest motion is on appeal here, however.

Judge Zoss denied that latest motion for a transfer by order dated May 7, 2002. Judge Zoss concluded, first, that the conditions at the Linn County Jail do not amount to "punishment," or otherwise violate Johnson's constitutional rights, as Johnson had contended. Further, he concluded that the conditions at the Linn County Jail do not provide a compelling reason to transfer Johnson to another facility, because, even in light of Johnson's extended pretrial detention, the jail conditions are necessarily incident to administrative interests in safety, security, and efficiency, and are not punitive in intent. Judge Zoss also concluded that the fact that Johnson's three attorneys—located in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, Des Moines, Iowa, and Kansas City, Missouri, respectively— would save a combined total of 258.2 miles, if all three were to travel to meet Johnson at the same time in Des Moines, where Johnson hopes to be transferred, rather than Cedar Rapids, fell far short of a denial of Johnson's constitutional rights to an attorney and to prepare her case adequately. Judge Zoss noted that the travel distance remained identical for Johnson's two lead attorneys, the ones in Cedar Rapids and Des Moines, if Johnson were transferred from the Linn County Jail in Cedar Rapids to a facility in Des Moines, because the only change...