Gregory Chandler - Illegal Immigrants

This is an interesting case concerning Federal Rule of Evidence 404(b). In United States v.
Saldivar, 710 F. 2d 699 (11th Cir. 1983), the Court held that evidence that a father and son charged with aiding and abetting the transportation of illegal immigrants had repeatedly paid for the transportation costs of aliens. Such conduct by the defendants was admissible as probative of knowledge.


GREGORY CHANDLER, Attorney at Law

Gregory Chandler - Manslaughter

An interesting case is United States v. Leonard, 439 F. 3d 648 (10th Cir. 2006). The Court affirmed a conviction for involuntary manslaughter and assault arising from a head-on collision, the Court held that the defendant's prescription medication history was relevant and admissible to prove malice aforethought in a case in which the defendant consumed prescription drugs before the accident.

GREGORY CHANDLER, Attorney at Law

Gregory Chandler - Check Fraud Scheme

United States v. Fraser, 448 F. 3d 833 (6th Cir. 2006) is a prosecution for a check fraud scheme. The federal government prosecutor introduced excerpts from a book the defendant had written that detailed a virtually identical scheme. The 6th Circuit affirmed the conviction. The Court held that there was no abuse of discretion in admitting the evidence as proof of the defendant's intent. However, it was plain error to give a limiting instruction that the evidence could be used to prove, "motive, opportunity, intent, preparation, plan, knowledge, identity or absence of mistake or accident," because there was no issue concerning motive, opportunity or identity. The error was harmless, however, because the other listed purposes overlapped with intent, there was no showing that consideration of the book permitted any unfair inferences concerning identity, motive, or opportunity, and the instruction carefully addressed avoiding the propensity inference.


GREGORY CHANDLER, Attorney at Law

Gregory Chandler, 440 F. 3d 670

An interesting case is Alpha v. Hooper, 440 F. 3d 670 (5th Cir. 2006). The 5th Circuit affirmed summary judgment for the defendants in an action by relatives of a deceased motorist who alleged that excessive force was used when a deputy sheriff shot the motorist to death, the Court held that admitting evidence that the deceased motorist was under the influence of methamphetamine at the time of the shooting was not an abuse of discretion, because it corroborated the deputy's testimony about the events in dispute.


GREGORY CHANDLER, Attorney at Law

Gregory Chandler - Military ID cards

Beginning June 1, 2011, Social Security numbers on military identification cards will be phased out. The effort is part of a larger plan to protect service members and other Department of Defense (DOD) identification card holders from identity theft.

Criminals use Social Security numbers to steal identities, allowing them to pillage resources, establish credit or to hijack credit cars, bank accounts or debit cards. Currently, the Social Security number is printed on the back of common access cards, and on the front of cards issued to dependants and retirees. Beginning in June 2011, when current cards expire, they will be replaced with new cards having a DOD identification number replacing the Social Security number. The DOD identification number is a unique 10-digit number that is assigned to every person with a direct relationship with the department. The new number also will be the service member's Geneva Convention identification number.

An 11-digit DOD benefits number also will appear on the cards of those people eligible for DOD benefits. The first nine digits are common to a sponsor. The last two digits will identify a specific person within the sponsor's family.

Social Security numbers embedded in the bar codes on the back of identification cards will remain there for the time being, and will be phased out beginning in 2012. The identification cards will be replaced as they expire. It will be approximately four years until all military identification cards are replaced with the DOD ID number.

The identity protection program began in 2008, when DOD started removing Social Security numbers from family member identification cards.



Gregory Chandler, Attorney at Law

Gregory Chandler - Drug litigation

I have done articles about United States v. Roe, 210 F. 3d 741 (7th Cir. 2000) in the past. In the appeal the 7th Circuit affirmed a conviction for conspiring to distribute cocaine, the court found no error in the admission of the defendant's 1989 conviction for the same offense. The defendant had introduced testimony from police officers that no drug paraphernalia was ever found at his house and no evidence of drug activity was ever found in his trash because the defendant never placed trash in front of his residence. The Court opined that the earlier conviction helped to explain why the defendant would not keep drug paraphernalia at his residence and why he did not put out trash in front of his residence for collection by municipal trash collection crews.


GREGORY CHANDLER, Attorney at Law

Gregory Chandler - U. S. v. Garcia

In United States v. Garcia, 567 F. 3d 721 (5th Cir. 2009) the 5th Circuit affirmed marijuana trafficking and conspiracy convictions, finding no plain error in the admission of evidence regarding one defendant's cocaine trafficking and use, as it was relevant to issues of intent and knowledge. The Court also found no plain error in the trial judge's failure to instruct the jury on the limited purpose for which the evidence was admitted, commenting that "[f]or trials to function effectively, parties themselves must play an active role in creating the jury charge; the inclusion of 404(b) instructions is no exception."


GREGORY CHANDLER, Attorney at Law