U.S. v. Lee

• Decision Date: 27 December 2006
• Docket Number: No. 05-10478.,05-10478.
• Parties: UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Kil Soo LEE, Defendant-Appellant.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Ninth Circuit

472 F.3d 638

UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Kil Soo LEE, Defendant-Appellant.

No. 05-10478.

United States Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit.

Argued and Submitted November 13, 2006.

Filed December 27, 2006.

Earle A. Partington, Honolulu, Hawaii, for the defendant-appellant.

Lisa J. Stark, Department of Justice, Washington, D.C., for the plaintiff-appellee.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the District of Hawaii Susan Oki Mollway, District Judge, Presiding. D.C. No. CR-01-00132-SOM.

Before TROTT, WARDLAW, and W. FLETCHER, Circuit Judges.

TROTT, Circuit Judge.

This appeal raises the issue of whether a person arrested in American Samoa for allegedly committing federal crimes in American Samoa may be tried and convicted in the United States District Court for the District of Hawaii ("District Court"). Kil Soo Lee ("Lee") was convicted of extortion, money laundering, conspiring to violate the civil rights of others, and holding workers to a condition of involuntary servitude. Lee argues that his conviction and sentence are void because, first, the District Court lacked jurisdiction, and, second, the District of Hawaii was an improper venue. We disagree. We hold that the District Court had jurisdiction, and the District of Hawaii was a proper venue, pursuant to 18 U.S.C. § 3231, and 18 U.S.C. § 3238, respectively.

I BACKGROUND

Lee owned and operated a garment factory in American Samoa, an unincorporated territory of the United States located in the South Pacific. Lee recruited individuals from Vietnam, China, and American Samoa to work at the factory. Once the workers arrived in American Samoa, Lee controlled most aspects of their lives, including when and whether they could leave the compound, eat, or be paid.

Initially, Lee's actions included incidents of imprisonment, starvation of his workers, and deportation threats. Lee prevented workers from leaving the compound for several days at a time. In addition, Lee fed workers so sparingly that they were forced to sneak out of the compound in search of food. At trial, the workers' imprisonment and starvation claims were corroborated by individuals outside the compound. For example, on at least two different occasions, individuals observed Vietnamese women behind barbed-wire fences crying for food and help. Although those events prompted American Samoa authorities to investigate the factory conditions as early as May 1999, Lee obstructed these investigations by threatening to deport, or deporting, any worker who cooperated with the authorities.

Eventually, factory supervisors and guards began to physically abuse workers who disobeyed orders. The most violent abuse occurred on November 28, 1999. On that day, Lee, faced with a difficult deadline on a large contract, ordered Nuu'Uli, a Samoan supervisor, to beat disobedient workers. According to one witness, Lee said to Nuu'Uli, "you can beat anyone who don't [sic] listen to you. If anyone die [sic], I will be responsible." Immediately thereafter, Nuu'Uli grabbed the shirt collar of one of the workers and choked her until she was unable to breath. When Vietnamese workers came to her rescue, approximately 20 Samoan guards attacked the seamstresses with plastic plumbing pipes. During the altercation, one Vietnamese worker lost her eye. Several other Vietnamese workers were injured. In describing the event, one worker testified, "It was [like] watching a film where the people are being brutally beaten to the point of like massacre . . . . [T]here was a lot of blood on the line and on the floor of the factory and on the fabrics."

For reasons unknown to this court, American Samoa authorities did not prosecute Lee; however, the United States government did. On March 23, 2001, the District Court issued a warrant for Lee's arrest. The Complaint alleged violations of 18 U.S.C. § 1584 (involuntary servitude) and 18 U.S.C. § 1589 (forced labor). Federal authorities arrested Lee in American Samoa. Two days later, authorities transferred Lee approximately 2,300 miles to Hawaii, the site of the federal district court nearest to American Samoa. On April 5, 2001, a federal grand jury returned a two-count indictment charging Lee with the offenses set forth in the Complaint.

On July 16, 2001, Lee moved to dismiss for lack of jurisdiction and improper venue. Specifically, Lee claimed, "under the Constitution and relevant statutes, jurisdiction and venue in this case properly lies in the court of American Samoa, which has been vested with plenary judicial authority over the territory of American Samoa." In response, the government asserted that the District Court had jurisdiction, and was a proper venue, under 18 U.S.C. § 3231 and 18 U.S.C. § 3238, respectively. The District Court agreed with the government, and denied Lee's motion on August 30, 2001. The court indicated that, technically, Lee had not moved for dismissal on the ground of jurisdiction, but rather venue. Then, the court disposed of Lee's venue argument in three steps. First, the court noted that the case turned on whether American Samoa was a "district" pursuant to venue statute 18 U.S.C. § 3238.¹ Second, the court held that American Samoa was not a "district" because (1) American Samoa was absent from the list of judicial districts in the United States Code, and (2) Congress never vested American Samoa courts with the authority of statutorily defined "district courts." Third, the court concluded that because United States district courts maintain jurisdiction to prosecute federal crimes pursuant to § 3231, and because American Samoa did not constitute a "district" pursuant to § 3238, the court was appropriately exercising jurisdiction and the District of Hawaii was a proper venue.

On that same day, a federal grand jury returned a 22-count superseding indictment. Lee was charged with (1) conspiring to deny approximately 250 garment workers the right to be free from involuntary servitude in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 241 (Count 1); (2) holding seventeen workers to a condition of involuntary servitude in violation of 18 U.S.C. §§ 1584 and 1594 (Counts 2-18); (3) extortion in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1951 (Count 19); (4) money laundering in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1956(a)(1)(A)(i) (Count 20); (5) making a false statement to a financial institution in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1014 (Count 21); and (6) bribery in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 215(a)(1) (Count 22).

After a four month jury trial, Lee was convicted of 14 counts: Count 1 (conspiracy to violate civil rights); Counts 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 9, 12, 13, 15, and 17 (involuntary servitude); Count 19 (extortion); and Count 20 (money laundering). Lee was sentenced to a term of imprisonment totaling 480 months. The court imposed consecutive sentences. Lee filed a timely appeal.

II STANDARD OF REVIEW

We determine jurisdiction and venue issues de novo. United States v. Phillips, 367 F.3d 846, 854 (9th Cir.2004) (as amended) (jurisdiction); United States v. Liang, 224 F.3d 1057, 1059 (9th Cir.2000) (venue).

III DISCUSSION

A. Jurisdiction

"A federal court is presumed to lack jurisdiction in a particular case unless the contrary affirmatively appears." United States v. Arnaiz, 842 F.2d 217, 219 (9th Cir.1988) (quoting Gen. Atomic Co. v. United Nuclear Corp., 655 F.2d 968, 968-69 (9th Cir.1981)). In 18 U.S.C. § 3231, entitled "District courts," Congress vested district courts of the United States with jurisdiction to prosecute federal crimes:

The district courts of the United States shall have original jurisdiction, exclusive of the courts of the States, of all offenses against the laws of the United States.

Nothing in this title shall be held to take away or impair the jurisdiction of the courts of the several States under the laws thereof.

The United States District Court for the District of Hawaii is a "district court of the United States." See 28 U.S.C. §§ 91, 132(a), 451. Moreover, Title 18 applies to American Samoa, an unincorporated territory of the United States. See 18 U.S.C. § 5 (defining "United States" in Title 18 as including "all places and waters, continental or insular, subject to the jurisdiction of the United States, except the Canal Zone"); see also United States v. Standard Oil Co., 404 U.S. 558, 559-60, 92 S.Ct. 661, 30 L.Ed.2d 713 (1972) (per curiam) (holding that American Samoa is a "[t]erritory of the United States" within the meaning of § 3 of the Sherman Act). Accordingly, the District Court has jurisdiction to try individuals for federal crimes committed in American Samoa.

Lee's contention that § 3231 does not vest the District Court with jurisdiction in this case because the High Court of American Samoa ("High Court") holds exclusive jurisdiction to try individuals for federal crimes in American Samoa is not persuasive. Lee's argument consists of two parts. First, Lee contends Congress granted the High Court jurisdiction to enforce American Samoa law pursuant to a chain of delegations that starts with 48 U.S.C. § 1661. Second, Lee claims that the High Court's jurisdiction, developed through executive delegations, trumps federal district court jurisdiction in American Samoa.

Lee's first argument is correct. In relation to American Samoa, Congress directed as follows:

Until Congress shall provide for the government of such islands, all civil, judicial, and military powers shall be vested in such person or persons and shall be exercised in such manner as the President of the United States shall direct; and the President shall have power to remove said officers and fill the vacancies so occasioned.

48 U.S.C. § 1661(c). The President, in turn, delegated this authority to the Secretary of the Interior. Exec. Order No. 10,264, 16 Fed.Reg. 6,417 (June 29, 1951). Exercising the authority delegated to him, the Secretary of the Interior approved the Constitution of American Samoa, which provides, "The judicial power shall be vested in the High Court, the District...