NOT FOR PUBLICATION FILED UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS AUG 31 2020 MOLLY C. DWYER, CLERK U.S. COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE NINTH CIRCUIT UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, No. 18-50410 Plaintiff-Appellee, D.C. No. 2:17-cr-00229-CAS-1 v. FELIX CISNEROS, Jr., MEMORANDUM * Defendant-Appellant. Appeal from the United States District Court for the Central District of California Christina A. Snyder, District Judge, Presiding Argued and Submitted June 3, 2020 Pasadena, California Before: CALLAHAN and NGUYEN, Circuit Judges, and KANE,** District Judge. Partial Concurrence and Partial Dissent by Judge Callahan Following a four-day jury trial, Felix Cisneros, Jr., a former Homeland Security Investigations (“HSI”) special agent for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (“ICE”), was convicted of: (1) conspiracy to aid and assist an * This disposition is not appropriate for publication and is not precedent except as provided by Ninth Circuit Rule 36-3. ** The Honorable Yvette Kane, United States District Judge for the Middle District of Pennsylvania, sitting by designation. inadmissible alien who had been convicted of an aggravated felony to enter the United States, in violation of 8 U.S.C. § 1327 and 18 U.S.C. § 371 (Count One); (2) acting as an agent of another before a department, agency, or officer in a covered matter affecting the United States, in violation of 18 U.S.C. §§ 205(a)(2) and 216(a)(2) (Count Two); (3) knowingly making a false entry in a record or document with the intent to impede, obstruct, or influence the investigation of a federal matter, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1519 (Count Three); and (4) knowingly and willfully making a false, fictitious, or fraudulent statement in a matter within the jurisdiction of the executive branch, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1001 (Count Four). In 2013, at the request of a businessman acquaintance who had suspected ties to organized crime, Cisneros secured the return of Santiago Garcia’s passport and worked to prevent Garcia’s removal from the United States. In pursuing these objectives, Cisneros used his influence to access government officials and convince them that Garcia was a government informant. Cisneros also wrongfully accessed law enforcement records pertaining to the businessman and Garcia. At trial, the Government presented evidence that Cisneros accepted payments totaling over $25,000 in 2015 and 2016, as well as a lavish trip, from an associate of the businessman. On questioning, Cisneros admitted without explanation that he had intervened on Garcia’s behalf to obtain the return of his passport and prevent his 2 18-50410 removal, and that he had accessed Garcia’s records and believed him to be inadmissible and an aggravated felon. Cisneros appeals his convictions on the bases that sufficient evidence did not support his convictions for Counts One, Two, Three, and Four and that the district court failed to properly instruct the jury as to Count Two. We have jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 1291 and 18 U.S.C. § 3742. We vacate Cisneros’s Count Two conviction, affirm Cisneros’s Count One, Count Three, and Count Four convictions, and remand for resentencing in light of that determination. 1. As an ...
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