United States District Court, M.D. Pennsylvania
MEMORANDUM
SYLVIA
H. RAMBO, UNITED STATES DISTRICT JUDGE
Before
the court are two pretrial motions filed by Defendant Earl
Lafayette Hall, III (“Hall” or
“Defendant”). Defendant's written pretrial
motion raises three issues: (1) the voice identification
testimony of Edgar Leon was obtained in violation of
Defendant's due process rights; (2) the bank records
should be suppressed as the records were obtained in
violation of Defendant's Fourth Amendment rights; and (3)
the aggravated identity theft counts of the Second
Superseding Indictment (Counts 23 through 29) should be
dismissed as Defendant is being prosecuted for conduct not
covered by 18 U.S.C. § 1028A(a)(1). (Doc. 313.) During
the hearing on the aforementioned motion, Defendant set forth
orally an additional motion to suppress the voice
identification testimony of Edgar Leon because it violated
Defendant's Sixth Amendment right to counsel.
(See Doc. 340.) For the reasons stated herein, the
motions will be denied.
I.
Background
On
November 9, 2016, Hall and his wife/co-Defendant Renita Blunt
(“Blunt”; collectively, “Defendants”)
were charged in a thirty-one count Second Superseding
Indictment comprised of twelve counts of mail fraud in
violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1341; ten counts of money
laundering in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1956(a)(1)(B)(i);
seven counts of aggravated identity theft in violation of 18
U.S.C. § 1028A(a)(1); one count of conspiracy to commit
mail fraud in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1349; and one
count of conspiracy to commit money laundering in violation
of 18 U.S.C. § 1956(h). (Doc. 63.) Defendants are
accused of perpetrating a scheme between January 2013 and
June 2015 that involved submitting counterfeit United States
military discharge certificates bearing the names, dates of
birth, and social security numbers of eleven individuals to
agencies in various states in order to fraudulently collect
unemployment compensation benefits for ex-service members.
Prior
to trial, Defendants filed separate motions for severance of
trial, which the court denied in an order dated March 1,
2017. (Docs. 92, 96, 111.)
Trial
commenced on March 6, 2017. During trial, Hall moved for
judgment of acquittal pursuant to Federal Rule of Criminal
Procedure 29 on all counts except Count 28. The court granted
the motion with respect to Counts 25 and 27 for aggravated
identity theft, but denied the motion as to all other counts.
On March 10, 2017, the jury found Hall guilty of Counts 1
through 12 for mail fraud; Counts 13 through 22 for money
laundering; Counts 23, 24, 26, and 28 for aggravated identity
theft as to Brandon Abbott, Bryce Good, Shawnta Williams, and
Charles Campbell; Count 30 for conspiracy to commit mail
fraud; and Count 31 for conspiracy to commit money
laundering. (Doc. 131.) Hall was acquitted of Count 29 for
aggravated identity theft. (Id.) Defendants
subsequently filed post-trial motions, which were denied on
December 21, 2017. (Docs. 241-242, 244-245.) Hall was
sentenced to 116 months imprisonment on February 15, 2018.
(Doc. 272.)
Following
sentencing, Defendants appealed their convictions to the
Third Circuit Court of Appeals. On July 12, 2019, the Third
Circuit issued an opinion reversing the District Court's
denial of the motions for severance, vacating Defendants'
convictions and sentences, and remanding the matter for new,
separate trials. (See Doc. 290.) On August 29, 2019,
the court issued a scheduling order setting a pretrial
motions deadline and trial date. (Doc. 306.) Hall timely
filed a motion to suppress on September 16, 2019 (Doc. 313),
and a hearing was held on October 7, 2019. At the hearing,
Hall made an oral motion to submit an additional and untimely
argument regarding the suppression of the voice
identifications at issue. The motions are now fully briefed
and ripe for disposition.
II.
Discussion
Hall
raises four arguments in his pretrial motions, which the
court will address in turn.[1]
A.
Voice identification by Edgar Leon
Edgar
Leon (“PO Leon”), Hall's former probation
officer, was called by the Government in the March 2017 trial
to identify the voice of the caller in recordings from
several state agencies that dealt with unemployment benefits
for former military members. Hall now challenges PO
Leon's voice identification arguing that it violated his
due process rights.
Defendant's
brief, as well as testimony at the hearing, detailed the
history of PO Leon's interactions with Hall, PO
Leon's contact with case agents, and Hall's contact
with other probation officers. Because the court is writing
for the benefit of the parties, it is not going to reiterate
every email chain or contact in this memorandum, rather, it
will highlight key contacts and generally summarize the
communications.
First,
the records provided by the United States Probation Office in
the Northern District of Illinois (“probation office
records”) indicate that PO Leon began supervising Hall
on November 1, 2011, and concluded his supervision of Hall on
December 23, 2013, at which time Hall was reassigned to
Probation Officer Christina Figueroa (“PO
Figueroa”). (Def. Ex. 102; Doc. 343-2, p. 6 of 11.) PO
Figueroa reportedly supervised Hall from December 23, 2013,
until his supervision was terminated on April 9, 2015. (Def.
Ex. 102; Doc. 343-2, p. 6 of 11.) According to these records,
PO Leon had six in person or telephone interactions with
Hall, and PO Figueroa had nine such
interactions.[2] (Def. Ex. 102.)
Next,
the parties provided over one hundred pages of agent notes
and email communications between agents and PO Leon and PO
Figueroa. (Gov't Ex. 1; Def. Ex. 106.) Agent Joel Parisi
(“Agent Parisi”) initially contacted PO Figueroa
on July 17, 2014. On July 21, 2014, Agent Parisi emailed PO
Figueroa two audio recordings to see whether she could
identify the voices as Hall or Blunt. PO Figueroa responded
the following day stating that PO Leon is “100%
sure” that the male voice is Hall but she “could
not make the same conclusion as [she had] been supervising
[him] for less time.” Agent Parisi subsequently began
communicating with PO Leon directly regarding the audio
recordings and emailed additional recordings for PO Leon to
listen to on September 14, 2014. In this and subsequent
emails, Agent Parisi specifically asked whether PO Leon could
identify the voice of the caller as Earl Hall.
Moving
forward, on May 23, 2016, Agent Parisi emailed PO Leon
stating he mailed a CD with “all 13 PA telephone
calls” to him and summarized nine other calls already
emailed to PO Leon. PO Leon responded on May 25, 2016,
stating:
The Hawaii session with Sam Adams did not sound like Earl
Hall. I cannot, with a high degree of certainty, say that was
him.
Out of the 13 recordings, I find the following:
#1 poor recording and can't with certainty say it's
Earl Hall.
#2, #3, #4, #6, #7, #9, #10,
#5 I'm not certain it's Earl Hall
#8 high degree but not 100% ...