9th Circuit reinstates stash-house-sting indictment
A federal appeals court has reversed a federal judge who tossed an indictment because of what he deemed to be an “outrageous” sting involving an invitation to rob a drug stash house that didn’t exist.
The San Francisco-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said it shared concerns voiced by U.S. District Judge Otis Wright about expanding use of the stings, but they didn’t satisfy the exacting standard for dismissing a case, the Los Angeles Times reports. The court ruled in the case against Antuan Dunlap and Joseph Whitfield.
The sting operations are used by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. According to the 9th Circuit’s unpublished Dec. 4 opinion (PDF), “The ATF targeted individuals who had already demonstrated an interest in committing robberies, and did little more than “set the ‘bait’ ” by inventing a fictitious cocaine stash house they could rob.” The defendants planned nearly every detail of the robbery and provided the guns, disguises and zip ties to carry it out, the opinion said.
The appeals court ordered reassignment of the case on remand, citing statements by Wright that “reasonably could be understood as indicating that he had prejudged sentencing and intended to impose a lenient sentence.”
The court cited this statement in particular by Wright during Dunlap’s bail hearing: “I have it on pretty good terms and from a pretty good source [that Dunlap] probably isn’t looking at a lot of time.”
Hat tip to the Marshall Project.
