U.S. v. Teague
| Decision Date | 21 April 2006 |
| Docket Number | No. 04-2071.,04-2071. |
| Citation | 443 F.3d 1310 |
| Parties | UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Anthony David TEAGUE, Defendant-Appellant. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Tenth Circuit |
Raymond P. Moore, Federal Public Defender, Vicki Mandell-King, Assistant Federal Public Defender, Denver, Colorado, for the Defendant-Appellant.
David C. Iglesias, United States Attorney, Norman Cairns, Assistant United States Attorney, Albuquerque, New Mexico, for the Plaintiff-Appellee.
Before MURPHY, HOLLOWAY, and HARTZ, Circuit Judges.
A jury convicted Anthony Teague of transmitting in interstate commerce a communication to James Locatelli containing a threat. See 18 U.S.C. § 875(c). On appeal Mr. Teague claims that the district court erred by (1) requiring as a special condition of supervised release that he have no contact with the court except through counsel and (2) instructing the jury incorrectly on the elements of the offense. We have jurisdiction under 18 U.S.C. § 3742 and 28 U.S.C. § 1291. We affirm the judgment of the district court.
Mr. Teague hired attorney James Locatelli to represent him in divorce proceedings in the summer of 2000. At that time Mr. Teague lived in Texas and Mr. Locatelli lived in Las Cruces, New Mexico, where Mr. Teague's estranged wife had relocated. Mr. Teague paid Mr. Locatelli a $1,000 retainer. The two men did not meet in person but communicated by phone, letter, fax, and e-mail.
From the beginning of the divorce proceeding, Mr. Locatelli thought that Mr. Teague might be a "troublesome" client. R. Vol. IX at 51. They had a "negative" relationship. Id. at 52. Mr. Teague wanted "contradictory things" from him, such as requesting that he receive either full custody and control of his daughter or no parental rights at all (so that he would not have to pay child support). Id. at 53. At one point Mr. Locatelli confronted Mr. Teague about alleged lies relating to accusations of domestic abuse.
Mr. Teague became verbally abusive to Mr. Locatelli and his staff, and he refused to pay further fees after the $1,000 retainer had been exhausted. Early in 2001 Mr. Locatelli requested permission from the court to withdraw as Mr. Teague's attorney, but the court denied the request. After Mr. Teague learned that Mr. Locatelli had asked to withdraw, he decided to deal with opposing counsel on his own and Mr. Locatelli ceased working on the case.
When the divorce proceeding concluded in May 2001, Mr. Locatelli sent a copy of the final order to Mr. Teague along with a bill for the money still owed. Mr. Locatelli had no further communication with Mr. Teague until almost two years later.
Mr. Teague resurfaced in February 2003. He called Mr. Locatelli (who had become a municipal court judge) and began to send him e-mails accusing him of mishandling the matter. On February 15, 2003, Mr. Teague e-mailed Mr. Locatelli to ask that his records from the divorce case be sent to him. The e-mail concluded, R. Vol. IX at 67. A few minutes later he sent another e-mail demanding the return of his $1,000 retainer, saying he needed it to pay "a pretty steep overdue fee for renting `Emma' that has to be paid off." Id. at 68. Emma was also the name of Mr. Locatelli's daughter. Mr. Locatelli testified that it was this e-mail that "started giving [him] the creeps" and that he considered it "a veiled threat." Id. at 68.
Four days later Mr. Teague sent three more emails to Mr. Locatelli. The first inquired about the court records and the retainer, and ended with the statement, "Colleen says `hi,' by the way." Id. at 69. Mr. Locatelli did not know anyone by that name. Mr. Teague's second e-mail said:
Where is it, Jimminy? God, it sucks losing a daughter ... it's fucking traumatizing, man. I really hope you get me those files and that $1,000 you owe me, "toute de suite," so I can trust the legal system again. Without the rule of law, what are we? Dumb beasts? Repent on what you have done to me and refund my fees and give me my files immediately. This is not a request. Love, Tony.
Id. Mr. Locatelli replied by e-mail that he would send the records, provided Mr. Teague paid the copying costs and stopped swearing and using invectives. In his third e-mail of the day, Mr. Teague responded that he might "swing by your house sometime and pick up the files" and "discuss the outstanding legal debt." Id. at 70. He also said that he might move to New Mexico "so we can be neighbors" and asked Mr. Locatelli whether his Texas driver, fishing, and concealed-firearm licenses would be valid there. Id. He ended the e-mail by suggesting that Mr. Locatelli was being paranoid and that he should "consult a psychologist whom you can trust." Id. Mr. Locatelli's wife was a psychologist, and he considered this "a direct threat" because it "buil[t] on, I felt, another threat in the previous e-mail, knowing his history of violence with his ex-wife, having personally, you know, heard him when he was abusing both myself and my secretary." Id. at 70-71. He notified the FBI about the threats.
One day later Mr. Teague again e-mailed:
J-Lo, you owe me some serious money here, amico mio. Stop fencing with me and pay up. I shall consider any itemized charges against my fees that I paid to you. Be sure to include entries for the following services:
Number 1, breaking attorney-client privilege and discretely disclosing sensitive information to other parties in New Mexico;
Number 2, furthering the emotional damage done to myself and my daughter by facilitating our continued separation;
Number 3, lying to me about gaining telephone visitation and building my hopes up as to being able to even speak with my daughter; And
4, generally behaving like the all-around cock-sucking piece of shit/kyke/dago/whatever the fuck you are.
I hope you still have my address, but I can provide it for you again, Jimminy. I shall expect a cashier's check very soon in the full amount of $1,000.
As far as the files are concerned, I have no interest in the official court records. Dig up the archives of your professional notes. I want the originals in my office, and I don't want copies anywhere else.
Do this today, J-Lo. Tony.
Id. at 71-72. Mr. Locatelli responded by informing Mr. Teague that he had contacted the FBI.
On March 18, 2003, an FBI agent called Mr. Teague to tell him to be careful about his e-mails. The next day Mr. Teague sent his final e-mail. Under the subject line "Sunshine and rainbows," the body of the message simply said, "You and your family are going to die, Jim." Id. at 73. Mr. Teague was arrested the next day.
At trial Mr. Teague admitted sending the e-mails. But he gave an "explanation" for his actions. He stated that he had sent the e-mail mentioning the name of Mr. Locatelli's daughter to "ring his bell, so to speak, as hard as I could, to get him to file a report with the FBI." Id. at 121. He said that his ex-wife had instigated an FBI investigation, and he had tried to induce Mr. Locatelli to contact the FBI because he was "very angry with the FBI for investigating me for the past three years," id., and wanted to get their attention. But, he said, he had not actually intended to threaten Mr. Locatelli or his family.
Referring to his e-mail of February 19, 2003, he explained that "Colleen" was a confidential informant and by mentioning her name he meant to alert the FBI that he was willing to "out" her. Id. at 124. Likewise, his e-mail suggesting that he might "swing by" Mr. Locatelli's house was intended Id. "[I]t was my intent from the very beginning," he testified, "to press Mr. Locatelli's buttons as hard as possible, so he would go off and press the FBI's buttons as hard as possible." Id. He said that he continued to mention money "because if you were attempting to collect on a debt, then, legally, what you are doing could not possibly be construed as harassment." Id. at 125. Mr. Teague further testified that he never intended to go to Las Cruces, he had not so much as held a gun in his life, and he had assumed that the FBI would inform Mr. Locatelli of that fact. He meant the e-mail suggestion that Mr. Locatelli see a psychologist to refer to Mr. Locatelli's wife, a psychologist.
As for his final e-mail, Mr. Teague testified that it was meant in an "almost humorous" way to get Mr. Locatelli to forward the e-mail to the FBI. Id. at 127. The FBI had already contacted him the day before about his earlier e-mails and he "thought [he would] throw another piece of wood onto the fire, so to speak." Id. at 129. When asked why he would send another e-mail after having already been contacted by an FBI agent, who had left him a voice mail warning him that he "really need[ed] to be careful," id. at 128, he said that the e-mail was "a very flippant, kind of on-the-cuff [sic], spur-of-the-moment type of thing," id. at 130. He insisted that his statement "You and your family are going to die" was a literal, biological truth and was not meant to imply that he was going to kill them. He had not intended to convey a death threat, but acknowledged that it was "an incredibly smartass thing to say to somebody, especially after all the other things I was doing, but, then again, I thought this was very safely well within the gray area." Id. When asked on cross-examination whether he felt he had succeeded in getting the attention of the FBI, he replied, "I would say that I have succeeded far beyond my wildest hopes, yes." Id. at 139.
After the defense rested, the district...
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