U.S. v. Simon

Full title: UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, v. LOIS ANN NELSON SIMON

Court: United States District Court, E.D. Louisiana

Date published: Jun 3, 2003

CRIMINAL ACTION NO. 03-067, SECTION "N" (E.D. La. Jun. 3, 2003)

Opinion

CRIMINAL ACTION NO. 03-067, SECTION "N".

June 3, 2003.

ORDER AND REASONS

KURT D. ENGELHARDT, United States District Judge

Before the Court is a Motion to Dismiss Charges Against the Defendant, filed by the defendant. For the reasons that follow, the motion is DENIED.

Each of the defendant's arguments attack the sufficiency of the government's evidence to establish defendant's guilt beyond a reasonable doubt and urge the defendant's innocence. The issues raised are factual ones that cannot be determined without a trial of the general issue. Thus, they cannot be resolved on a pretrial motion to dismiss. See Fed.R.Crim.Proc. 12(b)(2) ("A party may raise by pretrial motion any defense, objection, or request that the court can determine without a trial of the general issue."); United States v. Mann, 517 F.2d 259, 267 (5th Cir. 1975) ("A defendant may not properly challenge an indictment, sufficient on its face, on the ground that the allegations are not supported by adequate evidence. . . . `There is no authority under Rule 12 . . . to dismiss on the basis of a sufficiency-of-the-evidence defense which raises factual questions embraced in the general issue."'), cert. denied, 423 U.S. 1087 (1976) (quoting United States v. Brown, 481 F.2d 1035, 1041 (8th Cir. 1973)); see also United States v. DeLaurentis, 230 F.3d 659, 660-61 (3rd Cir. 2000) ("[A] pretrial motion to dismiss an indictment is not a permissible vehicle for addressing the sufficiency of the government's evidence. . . . Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure 12(b)(2) authorizes dismissal of an indictment if its allegations do not suffice to charge an offense, but such dismissals may not be predicated upon the insufficiency of the evidence to prove the indictment's charges."); United States v. Russell, 919 F.2d 795, 797 (1st Cir. 1990) ("As a general rule, when a pretrial motion raises a question of fact that is intertwined with the issues on the merits, resolution of the question of fact thus raised must be deferred until trial."). The allegations on the face of the indictment suffice to charge an offense.

Accordingly, IT IS ORDERED that the motion is DENIED.