1. Memorandum
To: Associates in LARW II Section A/B (Last names beginning with A-J)
From: Professor Goering
Date: February 13, 2007
Re: Appellate Brief Assignment: United States of America v. Roy M. Belfast, Jr.
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We have been retained by the Federal Public Defender’s Office to assist with an appellate
brief to be filed in the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit. Our client is Roy
Belfast, Jr., a/k/a Charles Taylor, Jr. He recently pleaded guilty in Miami to making a false
statement on a passport application. On December 6, 2006, the day before he was to be
sentenced for the passport violation, he was arrested for engaging in torture, conspiring to engage
in torture, and carrying a firearm in connection with a crime of violence. All of these offenses
allegedly occurred in the west African country of Liberia in July 2002.
The Federal Public Defender’s Office has assigned the case to Miguel Caridad, Assistant
Federal Public Defender. He needs our help preparing for the appeal. Mr. Caridad filed a
Motion to Dismiss the Indictment for Factual Insufficiency. He essentially argued that the
indictment charging our client with torture and conspiracy was not specific enough. The
defendant is charged with specific, graphic acts of torture against a single individual, but the
indictment does not identify the victim by name. Furthermore, the indictment does not name the
co-conspirators. The government opposed the Motion to Dismiss, and the United States District
Court for the Southern District of Florida held oral arguments on the motion last week.
Yesterday, February 12, 2007, Magistrate Judge Turnoff issued his ruling on the motion.
The Report and Recommendation is in the file. Basically, the magistrate judge granted the
defendant’s motion to dismiss the torture charge, but refused to dismiss the conspiracy charge.
The district court’s approval of the magistrate’s report and recommendation is expected within
ten days.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office has made it very clear to Mr. Caridad that the government
intends to seek permission to take an immediate appeal from the dismissal of the underlying
charge of torture. If the government is successful in filing an interlocutory appeal, Caridad
wants to file a cross-appeal challenging the magistrate’s decision not to dismiss the conspiracy
count. I need your help in drafting the appellate brief.
The attached file contains all the documents in the record that we currently have
available. Note that a couple of transcripts are missing. One is the transcript of the pretrial
detention hearing, which was taped on December 15. The other is the transcript of the February
5 hearing on Caridad’s motion to dismiss. I have contacted the court reporters to order copies of

2. those transcripts, but it may take awhile to get them for you. In the meantime, you can review
the documents in the record and begin preparing the appellate brief.
I have attached a copy of the transcript of the press conference held on December 6,
2006, at which the U.S. Attorney’s Office announced the indictment against our client for
participating in the alleged torture of a victim in Monrovia, Liberia. Keep in mind that the press
conference transcript is not evidence and is not part of the trial record. However, it gives you
some helpful background information on the case.
Be sure to check the local rules of the Eleventh Circuit for filing appellate briefs. Also,
remember that Fed. R. App. P. 28 and 32 govern the filing of briefs in the circuit courts of
appeal, so you must carefully comply with those general rules as well.
Please draft the brief for our client. The narrative portion of your draft should be no
longer than 15 double-spaced pages, excluding the Cover Page, Table of Contents, Table of
Authorities, and Certificate of Service. Your title page, margins, pagination, and other format
issues must be consistent with the local rules of the Eleventh Circuit and the Federal Rules of
Appellate Procedure. We would normally wait for the government to file its appellate brief first
on the primary issue (the dismissal of Count Two – the torture count). However, in the interest
of expediency, please go ahead and prepare our Appellee’s Brief on that issue. In the same brief,
as a separate argument heading, you should go ahead and include our Cross-Appellant’s Brief
challenging the trial court’s refusal to dismiss Count One – the conspiracy count.
I will need your draft brief no later than 5:00 p.m. on Friday, March 2, so we can review
it together and make necessary revisions before the filing deadline in early April. For your draft
brief, you may omit the Table of Contents, Table of Authorities, Summary of Argument, and
Certificate of Service. Of course, all of those sections are necessary in your final appellate brief,
which should be ready for filing. Thank you for your assistance.
PLEASE NOTE: You may discuss the assignment and your research with other
associates in our firm only (LARW Section A/B), but do not show your written work or your
legal analysis to anyone but me or my junior partner, Matt Stromberg. The Honor Code applies
to this assignment and all others in this course. If you have questions, please refer to the
Washburn University School of Law Honor Code, or ask me for clarification. Feel free to ask
either Mr. Stromberg or me if you have any questions about this assignment.