United States v. Harrison

683 F.Supp.3d 184

UNITED STATES of America, v. Charles HARRISON, Defendant.

3:22-CR-455

United States District Court, N.D. New York

Signed July 20, 2023

JESSICA N. CARBONE, ESQ., THOMAS R. SUTCLIFFE, ESQ., Ass't United States Attorneys, HON. CARLA B. FREEDMAN, United States Attorney for the Northern District of New York, 100 South Clinton Street, Suite 900, Syracuse, NY 13261.

GABRIELLE DIBELLA, ESQ., RANDI JUDA BIANCO, ESQ., Ass't Federal Public Defenders, HON. LISA PEEBLES, Federal Public Defender for the Northern District of New York, 4 Clinton Square, 3rd Floor, Syracuse, NY 13202.

ORDER ON PRE-TRIAL MOTIONS

DAVID N. HURD, United States District Judge

I. INTRODUCTION

After defendant Charles Harrison ("Harrison" or "defendant") had served most of his 120-month prison sentence for a 2012 federal drug conviction, the Bureau of Prisons ("BOP") transferred him to a Residential Re-Entry Center ("RRC") in Bloomfield, Connecticut to serve out the remainder of his federal time. Defendant stayed at the RRC for about six months, but on September 7, 2021, he walked out of the facility on a day pass and never came back. The District of Connecticut eventually issued a warrant for his arrest.

It took six months or so, but on March 29, 2022, a U.S. Marshals Service ("USMS") Task Force tracked Harrison down to a small apartment on Yager Street in Binghamton, New York. The Task Force officers were actually investigating a tip about a totally different fugitive, but after a brief chat with the woman who answered their knock on the apartment door, they realized defendant might very well be hiding there instead.

The USMS Task Force officers soon searched the apartment, found a 9mm handgun with a scrubbed serial number lying on the floor in a bedroom, and uncovered Harrison hiding under a mattress and a pile of clothes in another room. They arrested him on the warrant and sent him back to the District of Connecticut. He has since pleaded guilty to escaping from custody there.

Meanwhile, back here in the Northern District of New York, the USMS sought and obtained a "buccal swab warrant" (i.e., a warrant authorizing a cheek swab to collect a DNA sample). The USMS sent Harrison's DNA off to the FBI lab, hoping to match it up to the handgun they'd recovered from the apartment. When the lab test came back as a good match, the United States of America (the "Government") presented the matter to a grand jury.

On December 8, 2022, a federal grand jury sitting in the Northern District of New York returned a one-count indictment that charges Harrison with being a felon in possession of a firearm in violation of 18 U.S.C. §§ 922(g)(1) and 924(a)(2). Dkt. No. 1. Defendant was arrested and then returned to this District to stand trial, which was initially scheduled for April. Dkt. Nos. 10, 29. After some preliminary discovery disputes, Dkt. No. 9, the parties agreed to push the trial date to July 17, Dkt. No. 35.

On June 9, 2023, with the trial date still set for mid-July, Harrison filed four pretrial motions.¹ First, defendant moved to dismiss the § 922(g)(1) charge alleged in the indictment as an unconstitutional restriction on his Second Amendment rights in light of recent Supreme Court case law. Dkt. No. 42. Second, defendant moved to compel some discovery related to the Task Force's investigation into the apartment as well as their later inquiry into the provenance of the handgun they recovered there. Dkt. No. 44.

Third, Harrison moved to suppress the handgun recovered from the Binghamton apartment because it was obtained during a warrantless search that allegedly violated his Fourth Amendment rights. Dkt. No. 45. And fourth, he moved to suppress the DNA evidence because it was obtained with a search warrant affidavit that allegedly contained false statements and insufficient facts to support a finding of probable cause. Dkt. No. 46.

On June 30, 2023, the Government filed timely oppositions to Harrison's pre-trial motions.² Dkt. Nos. 51, 52, 53, 54. Defendant initially sought leave to file reply briefs in further support of his arguments, Dkt. No. 56, but then decided to just file a reply in support of his motion to dismiss the indictment without waiting for the Court to act on his pending request, Dkt. No. 66.

Thereafter, Harrison moved by letter motion for permission to file a reply in support of his motion to suppress the DNA evidence, Dkt. No. 67, and for leave to file a reply in support of his motion to suppress the firearm, Dkt. No. 75. Defendant also filed a letter in further support of his motion to suppress the DNA evidence. Dkt. No. 81. All of these filings have been reviewed and will be considered in connection with the pending motions.

On July 7, 2023, because the jury trial was still scheduled to begin the morning of July 17, the parties filed two motions in limine as part of their pre-trial papers. The Government, for its part, moved to exclude as hearsay any statements that Samantha Rolison, a woman who has identified herself as Harrison's girlfriend, made to investigators after defendant's indictment in this case. Dkt. No. 61. Defendant, for his part, moved to admit the bodycam footage recorded during the search of the apartment. Dkt. No. 79. These motions have also been briefed. Dkt. Nos. 80, 82.

On July 11, 2023, in light of the supersized motion practice stacked up and pending in this one-count criminal matter, the trial was adjourned from July 17 to Monday, August 14, 2023, at 9:30 a.m. in Utica, New York. The six motions have been taken on the submission of the papers, without oral argument, and with no further briefing permitted absent leave of the Court.

II. BACKGROUND

The factual summary presented in this section is based on the overlapping narratives presented in the parties' briefing and other supporting materials, including the bodycam footage filed by Harrison. Factual disputes relevant to specific aspects of the pending motion practice have been noted.

This story begins right where it ends: in Binghamton, New York. On September 28, 2010, Federal Bureau of Investigation ("FBI") Special Agent John Paul Bokal, Jr. swore out a criminal complaint that charged Harrison and four others with conspiring to possess with the intent to distribute and to distribute cocaine and crack cocaine in excess of 280 grams. United States v. Ash et al., 3:10-CR-486-TJM at Dkt. No. 1. This criminal complaint accused defendant, who was then on probation for a previous felony drug conviction, of being part of a cocaine distribution ring operating out of the Binghamton, New York area. See id. Indictments soon followed. Id. at Dkt. Nos. 13, 25.

On June 30, 2011, Harrison pleaded guilty, pursuant to a plea agreement, to one count of a superseding indictment that charged him with a drug trafficking conspiracy that involved, inter alia, 50 or more grams of cocaine base (i.e., crack cocaine) and 500 or more grams of cocaine.³ Ash, 10-CR-486 at Dkt. No. 63 & accompanying text minute entry. Thereafter, U.S. District Judge Thomas J. McAvoy sentenced defendant principally to 120 months' imprisonment on December 5, 2012. Id. at Dkt. Nos. 92, 93. Defendant was remanded to the custody of the USMS and later handed over to the BOP.

On March 20, 2021, with less than a year to go on this ten-year sentence, the BOP transferred Harrison to the Drapelick Residential Re-Entry Center, a halfway house in Bloomfield, Connecticut. Defendant stayed at this facility for almost six months. But on September 7, 2021, just a few days before his term of imprisonment would have been completed, defendant walked out of the place on a day pass and never returned. The District of Connecticut later charged defendant with escape from custody, a violation of 18 U.S.C. § 751, and issued a warrant for his arrest on November 8, 2021.

For the next six months or so, the USMS worked to develop some leads on Harrison's likely whereabouts. Deputy Christopher Schuessler, the U.S. Marshal in the District of Connecticut assigned to find defendant, learned that local police had encountered defendant and Samantha Rolison at a motel in Newington, Connecticut on September 7, 2021. Dkt. No. 51 at 3.⁴ The Newington police did not arrest either of them, but their police report noted that Ms. Rolison described defendant as her boyfriend. Id. So Ms. Rolison's whereabouts became a possible lead on defendant's location, too.

Later, in February of 2022, a detective with the Newington police sent to Deputy Schuessler some screenshots of a user's Facebook page. Although the Facebook user's profile name was listed as "Bruklyn Secora," the picture on the page appeared to be Ms. Rolison, who was visibly pregnant. Dkt. No. 51 at 3. Ms. Rolison had tagged another user named "Bossman Harrison." Id.

Deputy Schuessler examined this photograph and noticed that in the background of the photo there was a sticker advertising jobs at a company called "Loves," a chain of travel shops with relatively few locations in the northeastern United States. Dkt. No. 51 at 3. Because he knew that one of these travel shops was located in the Binghamton area, and because he knew that defendant had previously been arrested in Binghamton back in 2012, Deputy Schuessler put two and two together and decided that Ms. Rolison and defendant were likely hiding out together in Binghamton. Id. at 3-4.

On March 24, 2022, Deputy Schuessler reached out to his counterparts in the Northern District of New York to share this information about Harrison's likely whereabouts. Dkt. No. 51 at 4. In particular, Deputy Schuessler sent a lead sheet to Deputy U.S. Marshal Andrzej Kolut, a member of the region's fugitive Task Force, and asked him to look into the possibility that defendant might be hiding out somewhere in Binghamton. Id. The lead sheet noted that defendant was believed to be accompanied by Ms. Rolison. Id. Deputy Schuessler also shared the photographs of her that he had obtained. Id.

On March 28, 2022, Deputy Schuessler learned that...