Defendant's Motion for Hearing Request for Oral Argument — USA v. Sheppard (Dkt. 220, S.D. Fla.)

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U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida · No. 1:22-cr-20290-BB · Doc. 220 · 2024-03-16 · Docket on CourtListener

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UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 
SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF FORIDA 
CASE No. 22-20290-CR-BLOOM/OTAZO-REYES 
 
UNITES STATES OF AMERICA, 
 
v.  
ERIC DEAN SHEPPARD 
________________________________/ 
 
REQUEST FOR ORAL ARGUMENT  
ON POST-TRIAL MOTIONS [ECF #204 & #205] 
 
Defendant Eric Dean Sheppard respectfully requests oral argument on the 
post-trial motions. Given the novelty of the legal issues raised in the Motion for 
Judgment of Acquittal [ECF #205], summarized below, we submit that one hour of 
oral argument would be especially helpful to the Court.1 
1. The convictions for aggravated identity theft (“AIT”) are in tension with 
last year’s decision in Dubin v. United States, 599 U.S. 110, 117 (2023) (holding 
that a defendant “uses” another person’s means of identification in contravention of 
the AIT statute only when “the means of identification is at the crux of what makes 
the predicate offense criminal.”), and the Eleventh Circuit’s decision in United 
States v. Gladden, 78 F.4th 1232, 1248 (11th Cir. 2023) (reversing an AIT conviction 
even where the defendant put another person’s name on a fraudulent bill). Oral 
argument would aid the Court’s application of Dubin’s stringent standard to the facts 
of Sheppard’s case. 
2. The fraud convictions are in tension with last year’s decision in Ciminelli 
v. United States, 598 U.S. 306 (2023) (holding that “the wire fraud statute reaches 
 
1 Sheppard also requests permission to address the substantial issues raised in the 
Motion for New Trial [ECF #204]. 
 
Case 1:22-cr-20290-BB   Document 220   Entered on FLSD Docket 03/16/2024   Page 1 of 3

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only traditional property interests,” and emphasizing that a “scheme to defraud” 
must be designed to do more than deceive someone of information needed to make 
discretionary decisions about the use of money or property). Oral argument would 
be helpful in deconstructing the government’s two invalid theories, neither of which 
proved a scheme designed to cause harm to a traditional property interest. See 
Defendant’s Motion for Judgment of Acquittal [ECF #205] at 15-18. 
Undersigned post-trial attorneys propose to present the arguments in support 
of judgments of acquittal. For scheduling purposes, we itemize here impending, 
professional commitments: 
• 
Jeffrey Fisher (admitted pro hac vice) is delivering oral argument in the 
Supreme Court of the United States on March 19 (S. Ct. No. 23-14, Diaz v. United 
States)2 and on March 27 (S. Ct. No. 23-370, Erlinger v. United States),3 and has 
teaching responsibilities at Stanford Law School during the week of April 1-5. 
• 
Jason Zarrow (pro hac vice motion forthcoming) has a deadline of April 
11 to file an Answer brief in the U.S. Court of Appeals (3d Cir. No. 23-2962, Fields 
v. American Airlines, Inc.) and will be drafting a Reply Brief for filing by April 30 
in the Supreme Court of the United States (S. Ct. No 23-1004, Mendoza v. 
Lumpkin).4 
• 
Howard Srebnick is set for a federal criminal trial from April 8-19 (S.D. 
Fla. No. 22-cr-20114-KMW, United States v. Polit Faggioni).  
 
2 https://www.supremecourt.gov/docket/docketfiles/html/public/23-14.html. 
 
3 https://www.supremecourt.gov/docket/docketfiles/html/public/23-370.html. 
 
4 https://www.supremecourt.gov/docket/docketfiles/html/public\23-1004.html. 
 
Case 1:22-cr-20290-BB   Document 220   Entered on FLSD Docket 03/16/2024   Page 2 of 3

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Passover begins at sundown on April 22. All attorneys for Sheppard are 
available to deliver argument on the following dates: April 24 and 29. Sentencing 
is currently scheduled for May 8, 2024. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Respectfully submitted,  
BLACK SREBNICK  
201 South Biscayne Boulevard, Suite 1300  
Miami, Florida 33131  
Tel. (305) 371-6421  
 
By:  /s/ Howard Srebnick   
Howard Srebnick  
  Florida Bar No. 919063  
 
O’MELVENY & MYERS 
Jeffrey L. Fisher (admitted pro hac vice) 
2765 Sand Hill Road 
Menlo Park, CA 94025 
Tel. (650) 473-2600 
 
Jason Zarrow (pro hac vice forthcoming) 
400 S. Hope Street 
Los Angeles, CA 90071 
(213) 430-8367 
 
NELSON MULLINS 
Jayne C. Weintraub 
  Florida Bar No. 320382 
Jonathan Etra  
  Florida Bar No. 686905 
Christopher Cavallo  
  Florida Bar No. 0092305 
 
One Biscayne Tower, 21st Floor  
2 S. Biscayne Boulevard  
Miami, FL 33131  
Tel. (305) 373-9400  
Case 1:22-cr-20290-BB   Document 220   Entered on FLSD Docket 03/16/2024   Page 3 of 3

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