White Collar Criminal Defense Lawyer Blog

Published on: April 13, 2022

Life sentence imposed for enticing a minor to engage in sexual activity upheld as reasonable

Romeo Sanchez was charged in a seven-count indictment involving sex crimes against minors. Specifically, his charges included two counts of enticing a minor to engage in sexual activity; two counts of enticing a minor to engage in sexually explicit conduct in order to produce child pornography; two counts of possessing child pornography and one count of having committed a felony offense involving a minor while already a registered sex offender. He was convicted after a jury trial and sentenced to life imprisonment, plus a consecutive ten-year mandatory minimum sentence for committing the crime while he was a registered sex offender.

His appeal focused on the denial of his motion to suppress evidence obtained from his two cell phones. An investigation determined that a fourteen-year-old was having a sexual relationship with Sanchez, 29, and she was using her phone for sexually explicit communications with Sanchez. Detectives from the Cape Coral Police Department went to Sanchez’s house with a warrant to seize his phone. Sanchez came out to speak with the Detectives and while speaking with the agents about the warrant for his phone, his parents came home. One of the detectives proposed that his parents get the phone because they knew where the phone was located. That detective said the mother agreed to get the phone and with that he accompanied the mother inside the house to get the phone. He left after retrieving the phone and a search of the phone revealed incriminating evidence.

A few months after the seizure of phone one, Sanchez was arrested at his place of work. In the process he tried to conceal another phone, which detectives seized. That phone showed that Sanchez was having sexually explicit communications with another fourteen-year-old girl, who investigators learned he was involved in illegal activity.

Published on: March 28, 2022

No violation of the Fourth Amendment by not immediately releasing a suspect after learning of possible exculpatory evidence

by The Swartz Law Firm

Vivianne Washington was arrested in the investigation of a brutal murder of an elderly woman at her home in Meriwether County, Georgia after assailants invaded her home, attacked her, and set her on fire. Before she died, she named her assailants as several black males and an African American female. Officer Hugh Howard of the Meriwether County Sheriff’s Office investigating the crime received a tip from a farm employee suggesting that he interview Cortavious Heard. Heard was a former farm employee who was on probation for another crime. After Heard was picked up he eventually admitted to his involvement in the home invasion. While interviewing suspect Heard, officer Howard received a tip that came into the Meriwether Sheriff’s Department from an informant that identified Washington as someone the informant heard was involved in this. The informant sent a photograph of Washington. When Howard received it, he told Heard about the tip and showed Heard Washington’s photograph. Heard identified it as the woman who was involved in the home invasion. After obtaining more information about Washington and confirming that the information came from a reliable source, an arrest warrant was issued for Washington. She was arrested at work about 5:00 p.m. Continue reading

Published on: March 23, 2022

Fisherman’s theft of trade secret conviction overturned for lack of venue but netted on extortion for Grouper sites.

by The Swartz Law Firm

Timothy Smith was a software engineer living in Mobile Alabama. An avid fisherman, he learned about a website called “Strikelines” that sells the coordinates of artificial reefs placed in various locations in the Gulf of Mexico by commercial fisherman. These reefs are attractive fishing locations but the coordinates are not shared to prevent overfishing. Strikeline obtains the coordinates by launching boats equipped with sonar equipment from its base in Pensacola, Florida that trowel through the Gulf of Mexico and discover reef locations. After processing the raw data collected by sonar, Strikeline offers for sale the private reef coordinates for $ 199.

Published on: March 1, 2022

Georgia real estate lawyer’s conviction and sentence for stealing millions from his law firm is upheld

by The Swartz Law Firm

Nathan Hardwick was a real estate attorney in Georgia who managed the “closing side” of the real estate law firm practice. The law firm sold part of its foreclosure operation to a private equity group for 14 to 15 million dollars but within a few years Hardwick’s portion of the money was gone from misfortune that included the 2008 financial crises, gambling, and a bad divorce. He owed millions in loans he could not repay. To satisfy his creditors Hardwick turned to conduct that led to federal criminal charges.

To repay a bank and casino debt, Hardwick lied to a bank in a line-of-credit application claiming that there were no lawsuits pending against him. Even worse, he siphoned off about $26 million from the law firm including $19 million from the law firms’ trust account, while hiding the withdrawal from other shareholders. To accomplish this theft, he relied heavily on Asha Maurya, who Hardwick promoted by to the position of CFO giving her authority over the trust accounts. At Hardwick’s request she repeatedly sent money from the law firm to Hardwick or his creditors and significantly underreported the law firm distributions to Hardwick. Eventually the scheme unraveled when an internal audit revealed an altered bank account. Both were indicted by a grand jury of wire fraud, conspiracy to commit wire fraud and making false statements to a federally insured financial institution. Maurya pled guilty. Hardwick went to trial and was convicted. Hardwick received a 180-month sentence and Maurya received an 84-month sentence.

Published on: January 12, 2022

Hotel franchise not liable to victims of sex trafficking for conduct that took place at hotels

by The Swartz Law Firm

Four Plaintiffs identified in their lawsuit as Jane Does filed a lawsuit under the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act (TVPRA) alleging they were victims of conspicuous and open sex trafficking that occurred at hotels managed by hotel franchisors Wyndham Hotels & Resorts, Choice Hotels International, and Microtel Inn & Suites (MISF). The Plaintiffs argued the franchises should be liable under the TVPRA for benefiting financially in a venture which they knew or should have known involved sex trafficking at the Defendants’ hotels. Two of these companies, Wyndham and MISF, are franchisors that license its brand to the Microtel Inn & Suites in Atlanta, Georgia. Choice Hotels International is a franchisor that licenses its brand to the Suburban Extended Stay in Chamblee, Georgia.

Published on: January 7, 2022

Threatening messages sent to family members of victims of Marjory Stoneman Douglas shooting were not protected speech.

by The Swartz Law Firm

Brandon Fleury was posting and messaging on Instagram posing as mass murderer Nikolas Cruz, the perpetrator of the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School (MSD), which took place on February 14, 2018, when Cruz brought a AR-15 style semi-automatic rifle into the school located in Parkland, Florida, and murdered seventeen students and faculty members. Between December 22, 2018 and January 9, 2019, Fleury used aliases like nikolas.killed.your.sister, the.douglas.shooter, and Teddykillspeople (referencing Ted Bundy) and sent victims’ family members and friends taunting and harassing messages that put them in fear for their own lives. After the messages were traced to Fleury, he was charged in federal court in the Southern District of Florida with transmitting interstate threats and cyberstalking. His charges were based on posts and messages sent to three individuals who lost loved ones in the MSD shooting. Following a jury trial, he was convicted.

Published on: December 28, 2021

A mother was sentenced to 30 years for producing child pornography and using her own two children as subjects. Worse yet, she sent it to their pedophile father.

by The Swartz Law Firm

Litzky’s live-in boyfriend, Roberto Oquendo, was a passenger in a car pulled over for a traffic stop in Melbourne, Florida. The officer conducting the traffic stop learned that he had child pornography on his phone. He gave an interview and admitted having pictures of the genital areas of his daughters for his sexual gratification. Law enforcement officers also discovered thousands of lewd images of naked children on his electronic devices. Oquendo was of course a pedophile.

Among those images were screenshots of video conversations between Oquendo and Litzky over several months where Litzky had posed the two children-victims focusing on their vaginal and buttocks area. Litzky was interviewed and eventually she confessed to sending approximately 500 hundred nude images and videos of their children to Oquendo. Litzky was charged with violating various federal child-pornography offenses and convicted.

Published on: December 24, 2021

No protection under the Religious Freedom and Restoration Act for protesters who damaged property at a U.S. Naval submarine base.

by The Swartz Law Firm

Clare Grady, Carmen Trotta, and Martha Hennessy are members of the Plowshares Movement, a Roman Catholic protest and activism group opposed to nuclear weapons. On April 4, 2018, they and others surreptitiously and illegally entered the Kings Bay Naval Submarine Base in St. Marys, Georgia, to engage in protest of nuclear weapons by engaging in what they referred to as symbolic disarmament. What they did was more destructive. They spray painted numerous anti-nuclear and religious messages on the sidewalk and on monuments, poured donated blood from the movement’s members on the door of a building and the sidewalk, hammered on a decommissioned missile display, placed crime scene tape around the base, removed signage and part of a monument, and cut through wiring and fencing to enter a highly secured area and display banners protesting nuclear weapons.

Published on: December 15, 2021

A civilian cannot be held liable for a false arrest or excessive force claim for briefly assisted a law enforcement officer with an arrest

by The Swartz Law Firm

Charles was arrested by a Dawson County Sheriff’s deputy on an outstanding warrant after he was found inside a car that the deputy had pulled over for speeding. Charles resisted his arrest for over five minutes and the deputy succeeded in subduing Charles with the aid of a civilian bystander and a second deputy. Charles was convicted of felony obstruction of a law enforcement officer in a Georgia state court.

He sued the two deputies and the civilian in federal court under section 1983 alleging excessive force under Georgia state law and the Fourth and Fourteenth Amendments of the U.S. Constitution. His claim against the civilian was that the deputy and the civilian conspired to violate his right to be free of excessive force.

Published on: December 13, 2021

No sentencing guidelines enhancement for arms smuggler who sold to a paramilitary terrorist group in Columbia

by The Swartz Law Firm

Francisco Arcila Ramirez was charged with several federal crimes in connection with selling firearms to the National Liberation Army (ELN), a paramilitary group in Columbia, designated by the U.S. State Department as a foreign terrorist organization. Through a straw purchaser, he acquired AK-style weapons in the Miami, Florida area, then had them smuggled to Colombia where they were delivered to an ELN weapons broker who then arranged delivery to a farmhouse in rural area of Colombia where they were picked up by members of the ELN. Arcila Ramirez was paid $26,567 in cash for his efforts. After this transaction, Arcila Ramirez began acquiring large quantities of firearm components to send to Colombia where they could be assembled. The firearm parts were cheaper to buy, easier to smuggle, and did not require straw purchasers.

When Arcila Ramirez was arrested in the United States, he waived his right to remain silent after receiving a Miranda warning. He admitted using straw purchaser to buy firearms on his behalf and concealing them in air compressors to be smuggled into Colombia. He admitted the firearms had to be for guerillas or delinquents but said he was not part of or involved with any group.