United States v. Elizondo, No. 20-2167 (7th Cir. 2021)
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Chicago Police Officers Elizondo and Salgado used their positions to embezzle drugs and cash, some of which they distributed to informants. They encouraged informants to present false information to state judges to obtain search warrants, which yielded more drugs and cash. The FBI's first sting operation failed. After obtaining court authorization to wiretap Elizondo’s phone, the FBI conducted another sting operation and recorded Elizondo and Salgado stealing cash they recovered from an FBI-controlled rental vehicle. Salgado saw law enforcement towing the rental vehicle the next day, and told Elizondo, who instructed Salgado to “relocate” items from Salgado’s home. Both were convicted of conspiracy and theft; Elizondo was also convicted of obstruction of justice for instructing Salgado to destroy or conceal evidence. Elizondo was sentenced to 87 months’ imprisonment. Salgado was sentenced to 71 months’ imprisonment.
The Seventh Circuit affirmed. The wiretap application was not an improper subterfuge search because the government was forthright about the scope of its investigation. The district court followed the applicable steps in its “Batson” inquiry. The trial evidencel on the obstruction charge was sufficient for the jury to infer that Elizondo acted with the intent to prevent the use of evidence in an official proceeding. There was no clear error in the loss calculation at sentencing.
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