Court Discusses Limits of Victims' Rights Under CVRA in Securities Fraud Case

2014] CRIME VICTIMS’ RIGHTS 91 it has extended many rights to victims before the formal filing of criminal charges as a matter of internal policy.'** This approach appears to be workable, as a number of states extend rights to victims during the investigative process.!** A. A TEST FOR DETERMINING WHEN RIGHTS ATTACH As explained in the earlier Parts of this Article, the CVRA clearly envisions that crime victims would have nghts in the criminal justice process before the return of indictments or the filing of criminal complaints. The question then as to how much earlier in the process crime victims have rights naturally arises. Does the CVRA apply one second after a federal crime has been committed? Or does it apply at some later point during an investigation? This issue was nicely framed by the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York in a securities fraud case. In the first indictment underlying the case, the charged crime did not include various victims. A later superseding indictment broadened the charges to include those missing individuals. When they brought a suit under the CVRA, the court noted that “[q]uite understandably, movants perceive their victimization as having begun long before the government got around to filing the superseding indictment.”!** The court, however, explained that there must be “logical limits” to crime victims’ rights before the filing of charges.'* The court noted: For example, the realm of cases in which the CVRA might apply despite no prosecution being ‘underway,’ cannot be read to include the victims of uncharged crimes that the government has not even contemplated. It is impossible to expect the government, much less a court, to notify crime victims of their rights if the government has not verified to at least an elementary degree that a crime has actually taken lac, given that a corresponding investigation is at a nascent or theoretical stage. The logical limits that the CVRA envisions could come from how the Justice Department interacts with criminals during the investigation of a crime. Crime victims’ rights advocates are fond of saying that victims “only want to be treated like criminals”—that is, they simply want to have the same kinds of rights as criminals receive, such as the right to be notified 182 See, e.g., ATTORNEY GENERAL GUIDELINES, supra note 52, at 41-42 (discussing the right to confer regarding plea bargains). 183 See infra Part ILD. 184 United States v. Rubin, 558 F. Supp. 2d 411, 419 (E.D.N.Y. 2008). 185 7g. 186 Td. HOUSE_OVERSIGHT_014070