Month: September 2022

Source: United States Department of Justice News

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. –  A federal judge yesterday sentenced a Northport man for being a felon in possession of a firearm, announced U.S. Attorney Prim F. Escalona and Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives Acting Special Agent in Charge Mickey French.

Chief United States District Court Judge L. Scott Coogler sentenced Dedrick Dawon McDowell, 24, of Northport, to 240 months in prison on two counts of being a felon in possession of a firearm.  

“This young defendant continued to engage in dangerous and illegal activities even after being convicted of a felony. The result is that he must now spend many years in prison,” said U.S. Attorney Escalona. “We are grateful for the work of the Tuscaloosa and Northport Police Departments, in cooperation with the ATF, in bringing this repeat offender to justice.”

“ATF’s top priority is to reduce violent crime.” SAC French said. “This individual continuously ignored the law in several ways that cause harm to the community. Narcotics distribution and the prevalence of guns on our streets continue to plague our community at alarming rates. Individuals who illegally possess firearms and distribute narcotics will be held accountable for their actions.  The ATF will continue to work together with our law enforcement partners to aggressively investigate and apprehend those individuals.”

According to the plea agreement, on November 18, 2020, Northport Police officers responded to a 911 call at mobile home park on Hunter Creek Road in Northport, Alabama.  An agent with the West Alabama Narcotics Task Force heard the police radio traffic and advised the responding officers that McDowell had numerous outstanding felony warrants.  Officers observed McDowell lying down in the back seat of a vehicle.  McDowell was ordered out of the vehicle and was arrested on the outstanding warrants.  Officers found two small bags of marijuana and $3,700 cash in McDowell’s pockets.  The officers recovered a digital scale with cocaine residue, four bottles of Promethazine, most often mixed with a controlled substance to form the popular drug known as “lean”, from a backpack in the front passenger’s seat, orange pills that were confirmed to be Adderall, and a Smith and Wesson .40 caliber pistol on the back floorboard where McDowell had been hiding.  The pistol was fully loaded with a round in the chamber.

On June 8, 2021, Tuscaloosa Police officers conducted a traffic stop on McDowell for speeding and failing to signal a lane change. Officers found hydrocodone pills, alprazolam pills, a small bag of marijuana, and $2,000 in McDowell’s possession. Officers then searched the vehicle and found a large bag of marijuana and a Glock .45 caliber pistol under the driver’s seat. The pistol was loaded with a high-capacity extended magazine. The pistol had been reported stolen to the Tuscaloosa Police Department in 2017.

ATF investigated the case along with the Northport Police Department and Tuscaloosa Police Department.  Assistant U.S. Attorney Kristy Peoples prosecuted the case.

Source: United States Department of Justice News

BOSTON – A Swansea man agreed to plead guilty yesterday in federal court in Boston to possession of child pornography.

Todd Miozza, 52, pleaded guilty to one count of possession of child pornography. The Court deferred acceptance of the proposed plea agreement until sentencing, which U.S. Senior District Judge William G. Young scheduled for Jan 19, 2023. Miozza was arrested and charged on June 29, 2022.

As stated during the hearing, Miozza admitted that he had obtained child pornography over the internet using a social media platform. During a search of Miozza’ s residence in June, his iPhone and laptop were seized and found to contain child sexual abuse material – including videos depicting infants. 

Miozza was previously convicted of possession of child pornography in the District of Massachusetts in 2002.

The charge of possession of child pornography by a person previously convicted of a child pornography offense carries a mandatory minimum sentence of 10 years and up to 20 years in prison, a mandatory minimum of five years and up to a lifetime of supervised release, and a fine of up to $250,000. Sentences are imposed by a federal district court judge based upon the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and statutes which govern the determination of a sentence in a criminal case.

United States Attorney Rachael S. Rollins and Matthew Millhollin, Special Agent in Charge for Homeland Security Investigations, New England made the announcement. The Swansea Police Department provided valuable assistance to the investigation. Assistant U.S. Attorney Elianna J. Nuzum of Rollins’ Major Crimes Unit is prosecuting the case.

This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse, launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice. Led by the U.S. Attorneys’ Offices and the DOJ’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state and local resources to locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who exploit children, as well as identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit https://www.justice.gov/psc.

The details contained in the charging documents are allegations. The defendant is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.

Source: United States Department of Justice News

PITTSBURGH, PA – A resident of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, has been indicted by a federal grand jury in Pittsburgh on charges of violating federal narcotics and firearms laws, United States Attorney Cindy K. Chung announced today.

The two-count Indictment, returned yesterday, named Cecil Lee Pinnix, 53, formerly of the City’s Upper Hill District neighborhood, as the sole defendant.

According to the Indictment, Pinnix is alleged to have possessed with the intent to distribute 5 kilograms or more of cocaine, 40 grams or more of fentanyl, and 28 grams or more of cocaine base on or about July 29, 2022. Pinnix is also alleged to have possessed a firearm as a convicted felon on or about July 29, 2022.

The law provides for a maximum total sentence of life in prison, a fine of $10,000,000 or both. Under the Federal Sentencing Guidelines, the actual sentence imposed would be based upon the seriousness of the offenses and the prior criminal history, if any, of the defendant.

Assistant United States Attorney Douglas C. Maloney is prosecuting this case on behalf of the government.

The Drug Enforcement Agency and the Pittsburgh Bureau of Police conducted the investigation leading to the Indictment in this case.

An indictment is an accusation. A defendant is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.

Source: United States Department of Justice News

Opening Statement as Prepared for Delivery

Thank you, Chairman and Ranking Member, for inviting the Department of Justice to address gaps in federal law that significantly limit our ability to bring war criminals and perpetrators of human rights crimes to justice.

Given the shocking crimes being perpetrated by Russia during its unprovoked war against Ukraine, this hearing could not possibly be held at a more appropriate, urgent, or, frankly, terrifying time.

The Justice Department is committed to holding the perpetrators of such grave crimes fully accountable. During a trip to Ukraine in June, Attorney General Garland announced the creation of the Department’s War Crimes Accountability Team, to centralize and strengthen our Ukraine accountability efforts, and he asked me to lead it. 

Unfortunately, however, the Title 18 war crimes statute does not cover the vast majority of war criminals who have come to the United States, who are here, or who will eventually come here – because it confers jurisdiction only when a victim or perpetrator is a U.S. person, not on the basis that the perpetrator has immigrated to our country or is otherwise on U.S. soil. The statute also contains other provisions that limit our ability to enforce it.

Having prosecuted World War II Nazi cases for nearly four decades, I can attest to the deep frustration we experienced because statutory limitations like those made it impossible to criminally prosecute any of the many Nazi criminals we found here. Instead, we could bring only civil actions against them. Russian and other war criminals who come here should not be able similarly to escape criminal justice or even find safe haven here.

There’s a second major gap: the federal torture statute doesn’t confer jurisdiction based on the victim’s U.S. nationality. Thus, even if a civilian U.S. citizen or a U.S. military servicemember becomes a victim of torture abroad under color of law, the U.S. ordinarily has no jurisdiction to prosecute unless the perpetrator is a U.S. citizen or is subsequently present here.

And there’s a third major gap: we don’t have a statute criminalizing “crimes against humanity.” Such laws – the first of which the United States famously co-prosecuted at the post-World War II Nuremberg trials – allow for the prosecution of certain criminal acts, such as enslavement or mass murder, when committed as part of a systematic or widespread attack against a civilian population, even if those acts occur outside the context of an armed conflict or a genocide. War crimes and genocide statutes alone simply are not sufficient to address the full and tragic array of large-scale atrocity crimes that continue to beset the world. I would be pleased to provide examples of infamous and horrific crimes that are beyond federal prosecutors’ reach in the absence of a crimes against humanity statute.  

The Departments of Defense, Homeland Security, State, and Justice, among other agencies, have agreed on technical solutions that would fill all three gaps that I’ve just mentioned. If those gaps are filled, the Justice Department can play, and is eager to play, a much fuller role in the crucial effort to make the post-Holocaust imperative “Never Again” a reality, not just an endlessly unrealized aspiration. 

Thank you, Chairman and Ranking Member, for affording me the opportunity to testify here today. I would be pleased to respond to questions.