U.S. v. Temple
| Citation | 447 F.3d 130 |
| Decision Date | 01 May 2006 |
| Docket Number | Docket No. 05-0165-CR(L).,Docket No. 05-0679(XAP). |
| Parties | UNITED STATES of America, Appellee-Cross-Appellant, v. Eva C. TEMPLE, Appellant-Cross-Appellee. |
| Court | United States Courts of Appeals. United States Court of Appeals (2nd Circuit) |
William C. Komaroff, Assistant United States Attorney (David N. Kelly, united States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, Katherine Polk Failla, Assistant United States Attorney, of counsel), New York, NY, for Appellee-Cross-Appellant.
Colleen P. Cassidy, The Legal Aid Society, New York, NY, for Appellant-Cross-Appellee.
Before: MINER and WESLEY, Circuit Judges and RAKOFF, District Judge.1
Judge WESLEY concurs in a separate opinion.
Defendant-appellant Eva C. Temple appeals from a judgment of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York (Chin, J.) insofar as it adjudicates her, in accordance with a jury verdict of conviction, guilty of forcibly assaulting, resisting, or impeding an officer of the United States engaged in official duties, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 111. The government cross appeals from the same judgment insofar as it grants Temple's motion for a judgment of acquittal following her conviction by the same jury for willfully oppressing a person under color of law while acting in connection with the revenue laws of the United States, in violation of 26 U.S.C. § 7214.
For the reasons that follow, we reverse the judgment in all respects, resulting in a dismissal of the assault count and reinstatement of the guilty verdict on the oppression count. We remand for further proceedings consistent herewith.
Temple was employed by the Internal Revenue Service ("IRS") as a quality analyst at the time of the incidents giving rise to the criminal charges filed against her in this case. She had been employed for approximately eighteen years prior to her termination for misconduct at the age of forty-seven.
On March 5, 2003, New York City Police Detectives Montes and Magaldi arrived at the IRS office in Manhattan to arrest Temple on a charge of aggravated harassment. The charge arose from threats of harm allegedly made by Temple to her landlord's management employees. Efforts by the police to have Temple surrender herself had proved fruitless. Upon arrival at the IRS office building, the detectives were met by an agent of the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration ("TIGTA"). The agent escorted the detectives to the floor of the building where Temple's office was located. Temple was not at her desk when the detectives arrived but, when she returned, Montes identified himself and informed Temple that they were there to arrest her. The detectives asked Temple to accompany them out of the building voluntarily to spare her the embarrassment of an arrest. Detective Montes testified that, as they approached the area of the elevator bank on the way out, Temple
became very violent. She became abusive. She used foul language. She jumped in front of my face. Her arms were flailing. She yelled at the TIGTA agent, myself . . . . She specifically said that we had "no fucking case," . . . that this was a dispute between herself and the management company, and I had no business being there.
Fearing an escalation of Temple's violent conduct, the detectives physically restrained and handcuffed her and, with the assistance of the TIGTA agent, brought her down in the elevator and out the front door of the IRS office building. Once outside the building, the detectives placed Temple in the back seat of their car and closed the car door. Temple opened the door and tried to get out. She was re-seated, the car's safety locks were engaged and Montes sat in the back seat as Magaldi drove to the 110th Precinct Police Headquarters in Queens.
As she was being transported, Temple continued to scream and yell abusive epithets. At one point, she kicked Montes as they sat in the back seat. During the trip, she told the detectives that she was an IRS employee, with "the ability to initiate investigations and audits into the tax histories" of the detectives. She also stated that there "were a number of brothers and sisters who held a grudge against the NYPD" and that she would contact those employees to audit the detectives' tax returns because of the arrest. Montes reported these threats to Agent McGowen of the TIGTA the next day. Montes testified that he took the threats to be true and gave the following reasons why he considered the threats significant enough to pass along to Agent McGowen:
[M]yself and Detective [Magaldi] were a little concerned that this woman having been an IRS employee for that amount of time, coupled with the behavior that we saw, and the belligerence, we became a little worried that perhaps she did have the ability to initiate audits and investigate into our tax histories.
Temple continued to be physically and verbally abusive after she arrived at the police station. According to Montes, Temple "said numerous times throughout that day that the charges themselves were bullshit, that the complaining witnesses themselves were all Hispanic bitches, that I being a Hispanic myself am taking their side and that this was all a racist, I guess you could say a racist scheme against her." Temple complained about her arrest even after she had been placed in a cell. During the booking process, certain comments that Temple made in response to pedigree questions were so outrageous that they made some people in the office laugh. After the booking, Temple was transmitted for psychiatric evaluation by the Emergency Service Unit of the New York Police Department. Subsequently, a psychiatric evaluation was ordered by the District Court, and Temple was found competent to stand trial.
Approximately two months after Detectives Montes and Magaldi arrested Temple for aggravated harassment, the IRS fired Temple for misconduct unrelated to the arrest. The termination of employment was impelled by an incident at the entrance to the IRS office in the William Green Federal Building in Philadelphia on October 23, 2002. Temple was in Philadelphia to attend a meeting. A magnetometer began to ring as she passed through it to enter the building. When the Federal Protective Officer at the magnetometer asked Temple to remove any metal objects on her person, she became angry and started to argue with him. When asked to submit her photo ID, she shouted at the officer and pushed her ID up close to his face. As he attempted to grab the ID, she snatched it from him and left. She returned thirty minutes later, reentered the building, and loudly bombarded the officer with an obscene tirade. Three other officers of the Federal Protective Service were summoned, and one of them asked Temple to reenter the magnetometer. She responded: "I am a government employee and should not be inconvenienced." Ultimately, two of the officers escorted Temple to her meeting.
A letter from the IRS Manager proposing the termination of Temple's employment referred to the incident in Philadelphia as the reason for the termination and advised Temple as follows:
I am also taking into account the fact that you were suspended for one day on January 22, 1992, for disruptive behavior. You were suspended for nine days beginning November 15, 1993, for insubordination and disruptive behavior. Again, you were suspended for 14 calendar days beginning on March 13, 1996, for disruptive behavior in a bank with which the IRS does business and for misuse of your position and failing to meet your financial obligations.
The letter notified Temple that further information was available from Senior Labor Relations Specialist James Petherbridge. It was Petherbridge who recommended and implemented the decision to terminate Temple, and he was familiar with her entire history at the IRS as well as the circumstances involved in her arrest by the New York City Detectives.
When Temple was terminated from her employment, effective May 7, 2003, she did not turn in her IRS badge identification as requested. She presented that identification to a bank manager at the Bank of New York on June 12, 2003. The manager called Petherbridge to verify that the person he was meeting was in fact Eva Temple. Petherbridge could hear Temple yelling in the background. He confirmed her identity but told the bank manager to keep the identification badge, which Temple was not entitled to have. The manager was unable to confiscate the badge because Temple had already retrieved it from him when the telephone call was made.
Upon arriving at work on the morning of June 13, 2003, Petherbridge found a message that had been placed on his office telephone voicemail by Temple on the afternoon of June 12. The message was placed at 5:12 p.m., after Petherbridge had left work for the day. The message was as follows:
Petherbridge testified that he was "basically petrified" after he heard the message and explained his fear as follows: Petherbridge immediately notified his manager as well as Agent McGowen of the TIGTA about the message. McGowen testified that, when he interviewed him, Petherbridge "appeared nervous, scared," and "was concerned that [Temple] was going to assault him." In his testimony, Petherbridge said that he "basically was afraid and had lunch the next week in [his] office because [he] was really afraid to go out." It does not appear that he had any further contact with Temple.
Temple was charged in a two-count indictment dated July 17,...
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§ 7.03 Burden of Persuasion
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