U.S. v. Saldana
| Decision Date | 30 September 2005 |
| Docket Number | No. 04-50527.,No. 04-50591.,04-50527.,04-50591. |
| Citation | 427 F.3d 298 |
| Parties | UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Samuel SALDANA, Jr., Defendant-Appellant. United States of America, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Saul Saldana, Defendant-Appellant. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Fifth Circuit |
Joseph H. Gay, Jr., Asst. U.S. Atty., Mark Twain Roomberg (argued), San Antonio, TX, for Plaintiff-Appellee.
Evers Jason Leach (argued), Law Offices of E. Jason Leach, Odessa, TX, for Samuel Saldana, Jr.
F. Clinton Broden (argued), Broden & Mickelsen, Dallas, TX, for Saul Saldana.
Appeals from the United States District Court for the Western District of Texas.
Before JONES, WIENER, and CLEMENT, Circuit Judges.
Defendants-Appellants, twin brothers Samuel and Saul Saldana, challenge their respective convictions for corruptly endeavoring to impede the administration of Internal Revenue laws and for filing false statements. They also contend that the district court sentenced them in violation of their Sixth Amendment rights in light of the Supreme Court's recent United States v. Booker decision or, in the alternative, that the sentences imposed by the district court were unreasonable. Although the brothers were tried and sentenced separately, they moved successfully to have their cases consolidated on appeal. Following oral argument, we issued an order of limited remand regarding Samuel's sentence to allow the district court to provide written reasons for its upward departure in that sentence.1 Having received and reviewed such written reasons from the district court, we now affirm both defendants' convictions and sentences.
Samuel and Saul were indicted by a Grand Jury on one count each for corruptly endeavoring to obstruct and impede the due administration of Internal Revenue Laws in violation of 26 U.S.C. § 7212(a)("§ 7212"). Saul was indicted on twelve, and Samuel on sixteen, additional counts for filing false statements in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1001(a)(3) ("§ 1001"). The government charged the brothers with filing false tax reports regarding several individuals for the purpose of triggering Internal Revenue Service ("IRS") audits and thereby harassing and intimidating these individuals. Different juries convicted each brother on all counts at separate trials before the same district judge.
The brothers were convicted for sending IRS Forms 8300 ("8300s"), "Report of Cash Payments over $10,000 Received in a Trade or Business,"2 to the IRS, falsely stating that the defendants had paid or received cash payments to or from a number of individuals identified in such forms. On the portion of the 8300s that request information regarding the amount of money exchanged by the filer with another party, the defendants either left the space blank or wrote $10,000 or filled in some astronomical figure such as $213 quintillion or $1,955,000,000,000,000. None of the persons identified in these forms had ever received any money from, or given any money to, either defendant. No one disputes that each brother engaged in the acts with which he was charged. Rather, each trial centered on whether the defendant harbored the requisite intent "corruptly" to obstruct the administration of Internal Revenue laws.
Each of the individuals with whom, on the 8300s, Saul and Samuel claimed to have transacted was in some way connected with state or local government. Most of the individuals targeted by Saul had never met him but (1) had written to him letters about his tax obligations, (2) had otherwise assessed fines or penalties for the government, or (3) were lawyers representing governmental entities that were seeking to assess fines, penalties or taxes against him. Samuel targeted judges and attorneys involved in proceedings against him or other public officials against whom he bore grudges.
Saul argues that he filed these 8300s in good faith, having learned about this tactic in a "tax course" that he attended with his fiancée, which course purported to inform those in attendance about a so-called "redemption" or "charge-back" process. This process purportedly permits individuals to redeem money from the government for a variety of nonsensical reasons, including that the government has an account for each citizen that is linked to the citizen's birth certificate.
Saul attempted to introduce into evidence "black manuals" that he claims to have received in this class and that explain this process. The trial court refused to allow the manuals into evidence, ruling that they were, alternatively, inadmissible hearsay, cumulative evidence, and would confuse the jury. Nevertheless, Saul testified to the jury that he relied on these manuals and generally described the "redemption process." An acquaintance of Saul's, Rick Garcia, testified that Saul advised him to file false 8300s against a judge presiding over Garcia's narcotics trafficking trial, as doing so would intimidate the judge and cause him to "back off" from Garcia's case.
At each trial, IRS Special Agent Jeff Allen testified that the defendants' actions cost the IRS several hundred hours of investigative manpower, requiring numerous levels of administrative review. At Samuel's trial, Allen testified additionally that Samuel was an anti-government tax protester who did not believe the IRS had jurisdiction over him and that, in filing the 8300s, Samuel sought to retaliate, intimidate, and harass the persons named in these forms. Allen stated that this is a common scheme used by anti-government protestors against public officials with whom the protestors have come into contact.
The targets of the false report forms testified at trial, stating that they had experienced various levels of concern, primarily about the possibility of an audit or, for many of the public officials, about their reputations if the public were to believe that they had received large sums of unreported income. None of the targeted persons was audited by the IRS or employed an attorney to defend them.
June Collerd, the mother of Samuel's children, testified that Samuel sent her an e-mail during a custody battle, advising that he would report her to the IRS, the Treasury Department, and six other federal agencies. Collerd stated that Samuel also told her that public officials involved in the custody case would "get theirs," that he was "going to get them," or that they would "pay for what they did to him."
The trial court sentenced Saul to a six month term of imprisonment on each count, ordering (1) that he serve counts one through four consecutively with counts five through thirteen to run concurrently, for a total incarceration of twenty-four months, (2) that he remain on supervised release for three years, and (3) that he pay a $1,300 mandatory assessment. The court sentenced Samuel to consecutive ten-month terms of imprisonment on six counts, and concurrent terms of imprisonment on the remaining eleven counts, for a total of sixty months imprisonment. In addition, the court ordered Samuel to be placed on supervised release for a term of one year on count one and three years on counts two through seventeen, to run concurrently, for a total of three years supervised release. The court also imposed a mandatory assessment of $1,700.
In directly appealing his conviction, each defendant challenges the district court's interpretation of § 7212 and also challenges his sentence. Saul also appeals the court's refusal to allow his tax manuals into evidence.
As each brother makes an identical argument with respect to the first issue on appeal, we discuss their cases together. All parties characterize the defendants' first argument as a challenge to the sufficiency of the evidence, but it actually implicates the proper interpretation of § 7212(a), which prohibits
corruptly or by force or threats of force . . . endeavor[ing] to intimidate or impede any officer or employee of the United States acting in an official capacity under this title, or in any other way corruptly or by force or threats of force. . . obstruct[ing] or imped[ing], or endeavor[ing] to obstruct or impede, the due administration of this title.
The brothers argue that the evidence did not support the jury's finding that either acted "corruptly" within the meaning of § 7212(a). They insist that our case law requires the government to show that the defendant sought an unfair benefit or advantage under the tax laws to prove that he acted with the requisite intent.
Although the government in its response frames the defendants' challenges as going to the sufficiency of the evidence to show that the brothers sought an unfair advantage or benefit without reference to the tax laws, the prosecution points out that, at Samuel's trial, the court instructed the jury — without defense objection — on the meaning of "corruptly": "To act `corruptly' means to act knowingly and dishonestly with the specific intent to secure an unlawful benefit either for oneself or for another." The record shows that an identical instruction was given to the jury in Saul's case, also without objection by the defendant.
Ordinarily, we review issues of statutory interpretation de novo.3 In this case, however, neither defendant objected to the trial court's instructions to the jury defining "corruptly," so we review that instruction for plain error.4 To prevail under this standard of review, a defendant must demonstrate "(1) that an error occurred; (2) that the error was plain, which means clear or obvious; (3) the plain error must affect substantial rights; and (4) not correcting the error would seriously affect the fairness, integrity, or public reputation of judicial proceedings."5
At the outset, we must determine whether the district court's instructions to the jury were erroneous.6 D...
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