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10-3663-cr United States v. Bowen UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE SECOND CIRCUIT SUMMARY ORDER RULINGS BY SUMMARY ORDER DO NOT HAVE PRECEDENTIAL EFFECT. CITATION TO A SUMMARY ORDER FILED ON OR AFTER JANUARY 1, 2007, IS PERMITTED AND IS GOVERNED BY FEDERAL RULE OF APPELLATE PROCEDURE 32.1 AND THIS COURT’S LOCAL RULE 32.1.1. WHEN CITING A SUMMARY ORDER IN A DOCUMENT FILED WITH THIS COURT, A PARTY MUST CITE EITHER THE FEDERAL APPENDIX OR AN ELECTRONIC DATABASE (WITH THE NOTATION “SUMMARY ORDER”). A PARTY CITING A SUMMARY ORDER MUST SERVE A COPY OF IT ON ANY PARTY NOT REPRESENTED BY COUNSEL. 1 At a stated term of the United States Court of Appeals 2 for the Second Circuit, held at the Daniel Patrick Moynihan 3 United States Courthouse, 500 Pearl Street, in the City of 4 New York, on the 29th day of November, two thousand eleven. 5 6 PRESENT: DENNIS JACOBS, 7 Chief Judge, 8 JOSÉ A. CABRANES, 9 DEBRA ANN LIVINGSTON, 10 Circuit Judges. 11 12 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -X 13 UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, 14 Appellee, 15 16 -v.- 10-3663-cr 17 18 GEORGIA F. BOWEN, a/k/a GEWNDOLYN TEMPLE 19 EMMET, a/k/a GWENDOLYN GODIVA EMMET, 20 a/k/a GWENDOLYN EMMET, a/k/a GEORGIA G. 21 EMMET, a/k/a GWENDOLYN G.T. EMMET, a/k/a 22 GEORGIA BOWEN EMMET, a/k/a GWENDOLYN G 23 TEMPLE T, 24 Defendant-Appellant. 25 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -X 26 27 1 1 FOR APPELLANT: E. Carey Cantwell, E. Carey 2 Cantwell, P.C., Buffalo, NY. 3 4 FOR APPELLEE: Joseph J. Karaszewski, for 5 William J. Hochul, Jr., United 6 States Attorney for the Western 7 District of New York, Buffalo, 8 NY. 9 10 Appeal from a judgment of the United States District 11 Court for the Western District of New York (Skretny, C.J.). 12 13 UPON DUE CONSIDERATION, IT IS HEREBY ORDERED, ADJUDGED 14 AND DECREED that the judgment of the district court be 15 AFFIRMED. 16 17 Georgia Bowen appeals from a judgment of conviction 18 entered on September 3, 2010 by the United States District 19 Court for the Western District of New York (Skretny, C.J.) 20 for aggravated identity theft in violation of 18 U.S.C. 21 § 1028A. We assume the parties’ familiarity with the 22 underlying facts, procedural history, and issues presented 23 for review. 24 25 Bowen contends that her former attorney failed to 26 properly advise her of the immigration consequences of the 27 plea agreement that he advised her to accept. She therefore 28 seeks to withdraw her plea agreement under Padilla v. 29 Kentucky,
130 S. Ct. 1473(2010), which holds that failing 30 to properly advise a client of the immigration consequences 31 of a guilty plea is ineffective assistance.
Id. at 1483. 32 Bowen pled guilty to aggravated identity theft in violation 33 of
18 U.S.C. § 1028(a), rendering her deportable under 34 section 237(a)(2)(A)(iii) of the Immigration Nationality 35 Act. See
8 U.S.C. § 1227(a)(2)(A)(iii); see also
id.§ 36 1101(a)(43)(M)(i) (defining aggravated felony to include an 37 offense that “involves fraud or deceit in which the loss to 38 the victim or victims exceeds $10,000"). After Bowen pled 39 guilty but before sentencing, her attorney withdrew for 40 health reasons and died soon after. 41 42 After obtaining new counsel, Bowen moved to withdraw 43 her guilty plea because, inter alia, she had not been 44 properly advised of its immigration consequences. However, 45 the attached affidavit swore that her former attorney 46 “misinformed her that she had no relief to get from 47 deportation it was a must” (an averment said to reflect 2 1 incompetence because her own subsequent research revealed 2 that relief was available). Although Bowen later contended 3 that her attorney had not in fact advised her of the 4 mandatory deportation that attached to her conviction, the 5 district court credited her earlier affidavit and denied her 6 motion to withdraw her plea. 7 8 Although we normally prefer to defer resolution of 9 ineffective assistance claims until a later motion under 28
10 U.S.C. § 2255, see Massaro v. United States,
538 U.S. 500, 11 504 (2003), the record before us is sufficient to resolve 12 Bowen’s claim, see United States v. Hasan,
586 F.3d 161, 170 13 (2d Cir. 2009). We review an ineffective assistance claim 14 de novo, see Arteca,
411 F.3d 320, 320 (2d Cir. 2005), but 15 accept the district court’s factual findings unless they are 16 clearly erroneous, see United States v. Monzon,
359 F.3d 17110, 119 (2d Cir. 2004). We owe particular deference to 18 factual findings premised on credibility determinations, and 19 where there are two competing, permissible views of the 20 evidence, a choice between them cannot be clearly erroneous. 21
Id.The district court’s finding that Bowen’s attorney 22 properly advised her of the immigration consequences of her 23 plea, when she admitted as much under oath, is far from 24 clearly erroneous. 25 26 The district court did not err by deciding the motion 27 without an evidentiary hearing. A district court’s decision 28 on whether to hold an evidentiary hearing for a claim of 29 ineffective assistance is reviewed for abuse of discretion. 30 See United States v. Levy,
377 F.3d 259, 264 (2d Cir. 2004). 31 On the record before it, including Bowen’s own admission of 32 the advice she received, the district court’s decision was 33 not an abuse of discretion. 34 35 Finding no merit in Bowen’s remaining arguments, we 36 hereby AFFIRM the judgment of the district court. 37 38 FOR THE COURT: 39 CATHERINE O’HAGAN WOLFE, CLERK 40 41 42 43 3
Document Info
Docket Number: 10-3663-cr
Citation Numbers: 441 F. App'x 48
Judges: Ann, Cabranes, Debra, Dennis, Jacobs, Jose, Livingston
Filed Date: 11/29/2011
Precedential Status: Non-Precedential
Modified Date: 8/5/2023