Criminal Law

Dist. Ct. did not err in sentencing defendant to 70-month term of incarceration on charge of illegal reentry into U.S. after having been deported where said sentence was based in part on finding that defendant's prior Ill. conviction for aggravated battery was crime of violence within meaning of section 2L1.2(b)(1)(A)(ii) of USSG. Dist. Ct. could properly make determination that Ill. conviction qualified as crime of violence based upon summary of indictment for said offense contained in presentence investigation report where defense counsel in instant sentence proceeding did not object to accuracy of summary. Moreover, while summary might be inaccurate, defendant's only remedy at this juncture was to file post-conviction proceeding.

Record contains sufficient evidence to support defendant's conviction on charge of conspiracy to violate RICO arising out of scheme by defendant-police officer and another officer to retain money and drugs seized from suspected drug dealers during traffic stops and searches of premises and to plant drugs on suspects in order to establish probable cause for said arrests. Ct. rejected defendant's argument that govt. failed to prove conduct element, as contained in section 1962(c) of RICO, even though defendant was low-ranking police officer, after holding that defendant and his partners were operators for purposes of RICO since defendant had power to control police dept.'s affairs and manipulated his power by transforming legitimate police functions into arms of his illegal endeavors. Ct. further found that defendant agreed to participate in at least two predicate RICO acts so as to establish pattern of racketeering activity where jury could properly conclude that several seizures of money and drugs from alleged drug suspects were robberies that were performed via use of force, as opposed to thefts from police evidence inventory.

Dist. Ct. erred in sentencing defendant to 48-month term of incarceration on firearms charge, after improperly rejecting govt. argument that defendant should have been sentenced to minimum term of 15 years as armed career offender. Defendant had previously been sentenced as armed career offender based in part on Ill. armed violence conviction, and said conviction still qualified as violent offense where said offence involved defendant's possession of cocaine with intent to deliver while armed with weapon since said offense involved serious potential risk of physical injury.

In prosecution on charge of attempting to possess with intent to distribute drugs, Dist. Ct. did not err in admitting evidence of four false mailing labels used by defendant in Express Mail packages similar to one found by police officials that contained drugs hidden in coffee maker that formed basis of instant charged offense. Although Dist. Ct. erred in finding that other false mailing labels constituted direct evidence of charged offense, said evidence was admissible under Rule 404(b) to establish lack of mistake, as well as evidence of defendant's intentional act of concealment.