United States District Court, D. Arizona
ORDER
DAVID
G. CAMPBELL SENIOR UNITED STATES DISTRICT JUDGE
Defendant
Tonya Lee Mims has been charged with violating her supervised
release in this case. She also has been indicted on new
financial crime charges in the Western District of Texas.
Defendant is in custody in this District, and has requested a
detention hearing. See Docs. 137, 150, 154, 155. The
hearing was held on March 15, 2019. Doc. 159. For reasons
stated in this order, the Court will detain Defendant pending
resolution of the supervised release violation charges.
I.
Legal Standard.
Rule
32.1(a)(6) provides that the Court may release or detain
Defendant under 18 U.S.C. § 3143(a)(1). That statutory
section states that a person in Defendant's position
shall “be detained, unless the judicial officer finds
by clear and convincing evidence that the person is not
likely to flee or pose a danger to the safety of any other
person or the community if released[.]” 18 U.S.C.
§ 3143(a)(1). “The burden of establishing by clear
and convincing evidence that the person will not flee or pose
a danger to any other person or the community rests with the
person.” Fed. R. Crim. P. 32.1(a)(6).
The
Bail Reform Act also provides that “[i]f there is
probable cause to believe that, while on release, the person
committed a Federal, State, or Local felony, a rebuttable
presumption arises that no condition or combination of
conditions will assure that the person will not pose a danger
to the safety of any other person or the community.” 18
U.S.C. § 3148(b).
II.
Discussion.
Defendant
is charged with violating mandatory condition 1 of her
supervised release, which prohibited her from committing
another federal, state or local crime while on release. Doc.
132 at 1. The superseding petition to revoke supervised
release alleges that Defendant committed the crime of access
device fraud, a felony, in violation of 29 U.S.C. §
1029(a)(2), as evidenced by a criminal complaint filed in the
Western District of Texas. Id. Defendant has now
been indicted on this charge. See United States v.
Mims, No. SA19CR107XR, Doc. 5 (Feb. 20, 2019).
The
superseding petition also alleges that Defendant violated
standard condition 7 of her supervised release - which
required her to notify the probation officer at least 10 days
prior to any change of employment - by obtaining employment
as the Director of Accounting for RentWerx in San Antonio,
Texas. Doc. 132 at 2. The petition further alleges that
Defendant violated special condition 4 - which restricted her
from engaging in any occupation that put her in direct or
indirect control of the assets or funds of others - by
obtaining the accounting position. Id.
After
considering the arguments and evidence submitted by the
parties in writing (Docs. 148, 157, 158), as well as the
arguments made by counsel at the hearing, the Court concludes
that Defendant has not carried her burden of establishing by
clear and convincing evidence that she will not pose a danger
to the community. Fed. R. Crim. P. 32.1(a)(6). Danger to the
community includes economic danger. See United States v.
Reynolds, 956 F.2d 192, 192-193 (9th Cir. 1992). The
Court also concludes that Defendant has not rebutted the
statutory presumption, which arises from the probable cause
finding of the Texas grand jury, that no condition or
combination of conditions will assure the safety of the
community. 18 U.S.C. § 3148(b). As a result, Defendant
will be detained pending completion of this supervised
release proceeding. The Court notes that Defendant was also
detained pending trial in this case after she was arrested in
2014. See Docs. 18, 36.
The
reasons for the Court's conclusion are as follows:
1. In
2005, Defendant pleaded guilty to mail fraud in the District
of Utah. She was charged with embezzling $1.7 million from
her employer. She was sentenced to 33 months in federal
prison, followed by 36 months supervised release. Doc. 89,
¶ 29.
2.
Defendant moved to Arizona following her release from
custody, and in 2009 advertised her services as a bookkeeper
on Craigslist, contrary to the conditions of her Utah
supervised release. She was hired by the victim in this case,
SR, and proceeded to embezzle approximately $1 million from
him. She pleaded guilty to several counts of wire fraud and
was sentenced to 36 months in prison, followed by 36 months
of supervised release. Docs. 89-92.
3. Upon
release from prison in this case, Defendant relocated to San
Antonio, Texas. Despite a condition of supervised release
prohibiting her from engaging in further financial employment
(Doc. 132 at 2), Defendant again applied for a financial
services job and was hired as the Director of Accounting at
RentWerx in February 2018 (Doc. 148-2 at 6). In this
position, she was responsible for handling the books of the
business, making checks, reconciling accounts, and handling
the general finances of the company. Doc. 148-2 at 8.
4. In
September 2018, Defendant's criminal history was
discovered by her employer and she was terminated. Following
her termination, it was discovered that Defendant made
unauthorized purchases with her RentWerx credit card. Doc.
148-1 at 6-10. Although the magnitude of Defendant's
fraud has yet to be calculated, an accounting firm for the
victim has estimated the ...