The defendant in this case, Karen Dooley, lied about her marriage status and income in order to obtain Social Security benefits and food stamps to which she was not entitled. While employed at a hospital, she stole credit cards and identifying documents from approximately 100 patients, then made purchases on ...

Here the Court rejected the defendant’s claim that he was entitled to habeas relief because he was incorrectly advised, both in his plea agreement and during his plea hearing, pf the maximum sentence he faced by pleading guilty.

William Davis was charged in a one-count information with unlawful possession of ...

It is no secret that the Government is increasingly utilizing secret and sophisticated new technologies to track down and prosecute individuals suspected of criminal activity. (See, e.g., U.S. v. Oliva, 686 F.3d 1106 (9th Cir. July 20, 2012) (P&J, 10/01/12), where we discussed a secret new eavesdropping tool which can ...

This case is about the proper interpretation of the Federal Mandatory Restitution for Sexual Exploitation of Children Act, 18 U.S.C. § 2259 (herein the “§ 2259”) - a law enacted in 1994 which made it mandatory for the Federal courts ro order restitution for victims of certain specified child-pornography crimes. ...

Michael Begin pled guilty to a two-count indictment that charged him with using the Internet and a cell phone to send sexual messages and photographs to a minor in order to persuade her to have sex with him. His presentence report (PSR) calculated that his advisory Guidelines’ sentencing range was ...

Here the Court pushed the boundaries of both intelligence and credibility by holding that a sentence of 3,480 months (290 years) in prison imposed on a first time offender in a child pornography case was not “substantively unreasonable”.

Leland Beasley was convicted at trial of eight counts of production of ...