Criminal Law

Dist. Ct. did not err in sentencing defendant to 384-month term of incarceration on charges of production and possession of child pornography. Ct. rejected defendant's argument that sentence was excessive even though defendant's extensive videos depicted children dressing and undressing, as opposed to engaging in explicit sexual activity, since Dist. Ct. could properly view defendant's conduct as causing serious injury to victims of child pornography.

Dist. Ct. did not err in denying defendant's motion to suppress evidence of his cell phone's call history where police searched defendant's cell phone without search warrant subsequent to his arrest to obtain cell phone number, and where police forwarded said number to telephone company to obtain call history that contained incriminating evidence. Police did not search contents of phone other than to obtain cell number, and instant intrusion of defendant's privacy was too slight to support 4th Amendment claim. Ct. further noted that instant search was consistent with warrantless searches following arrests that were allowed in Robinson, 414 US 218 (search of diary to verify defendant's address) and in Concepcion, 942 F2d 1170 (testing of keys to discover door to defendant's residence).

Record failed to contain sufficient evidence to support jury's guilty verdict on mail and wire fraud charges stemming from scheme in which defendant inflated number of bidders for City of Chicago project and failed to honor obligation to subcontract portion of project to minority business enterprise once defendant had obtained contract for said project as lowest bidder. Record failed to contain any evidence indicating that defendant's conduct, which had effect of allowing defendant to perform some work if another bidder obtained contract, would have resulted in City awarding contract to higher bidder had it known of defendant's conduct. Moreover, new trial was required with respect to portion of charges concerning defendant's failure to subcontract portion of project to minority business enterprise where prosecutor improperly suggested during closing argument that defendant could be found guilty if he had made decision not to subcontract portion of contract to minority business enterprise after he had been awarded contract.

Dist. Ct. did not err in sentencing defendant to 27-month term of incarceration on wire fraud charge stemming from defendant's scheme to embezzle more than $240,000 from three different employers, who had entrusted defendant to make purchases on behalf of said companies through the use of company credit card where defendant used card to make personal purchases and submitted false invoices to hide said purchases. While defendant argued that Dist. Ct. improperly applied abuse of position of trust enhancement under section 3B1.3 of USSG since defendant was employed as mere executive assistant at time of instant crime, Ct. found no clear error in applying said enhancement where instant employers, in spite of defendant's title, assigned defendant multi-faceted job responsibilities and placed more than ordinary degree of reliance on defendant's integrity and honesty when granting her use of company credit card. Ct. further noted that one employer had allowed defendant ability to approve her own false invoices.