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Articles Posted in Federal Sentencing

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Police officer’s stop of a driver for a partially obscure license plate upheld following fourth amendment challenge

McCullough was arrested and convicted for marijuana distribution. His conviction was affirmed by the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals in United States v. McCullough. This is how the facts unfold. He was initially pulled over by an Alabama police officer for driving with a partially obscure license plate. While the numbers on…

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Sentencing enhancement only requires that the conduct involve sadistic or masochistic conduct regardless who it is directed against

In U.S. v Scheels the Defendant pled guilty to one count of production of child pornography and one count of receipt of child pornography and received a 600-month sentence of imprisonment. In calculating his sentencing guideline range, the district court imposed a four-level enhancement under 2G2.1(b)(4) of the U. S.…

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Sentence in securities fraud case reversed because the government failed to show evidence that thousands of investors relied on the fraudulent information disseminated by the defendant

  After a two-week trial, defendant in U.S. v Stein was convicted of mail, wire, and securities fraud based on evident that he fabricated press releases and purchase money orders to inflate the stock price of his client, Signalife, Inc, a publicly traded manufacturer of medical devices. The district court sentenced Stein to…

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Categorical, generic, or modified categorical: It may be confusing but Florida’s burglary of a dwelling offense is not a crime of violence

  In this case Garcia Martinez pleaded guilty to reentry after deportation in violation of 8 U.S.C. Sec. 1326(a) and his guidelines sentence was enhanced 16 levels by the district court who found his Florida conviction for second degree burglary of a dwelling, for which he was deported, was a…

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Illegal sentence imposed where the court considered the failure to pay full restitution

  In U.S. v Plate the defendant worked at Wells Fargo in Orlando Florida as a financial advisor. One of her long time clients was an elderly couple for whom she managed their securities and bond portfolio. She became close friends with the couple. As their mental capacities diminished with…

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Life term of supervised release was not an unreasonable sentence for sex offender

  U.S. v. Trailer is an appeal from a sentence impose for violation the terms of supervised release that was part of the defendant original sentence for failing to register as a sex offender in violation to 18 USC §2255. A special condition of the original supervised release condition what…

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Sentencing guidelines require a sentencing enhancement for vulnerable victims despite prior case dicta

  In this appeal Birge was convicted of one count of mail fraud pursuant to 18 U.S.C. section 1341 for writing herself $767,218.99 while serving as the Chief Clerk of the probate court of Chatham County, Georgia. The checks were drawn from the conservatorship accounts belonging to 31 minors, two…

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Child pornography sentence of 151 months found to procedurally and substantively reasonable

In United States v. Cubero the Defendant appealed from his 151 month sentence and life-term of supervised release after pleading guilty to one count of distribution of child pornography and two count of possession of child pornography in violation of 18 U.S.C. 2252(a)(4)(B).   For various reasons he argued that his…

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Above guidelines sentence for federal supervised release violation reversed for sentencing court’s failure to state reasons

After serving his 195 month federal sentence for possession of a firearm Defendant Parks went on federal supervised release. Fifteen months later Parks was arrested by state authorities for burglary and grand theft. Parks plead guilty to the state court charges and was sentenced to 455 days, with credit for…

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Sentence of 151 months for possession and distribution of child pornography found to be reasonable

In U.S. v Cubero the Defendant appealed from his 151 month federal sentence and life-term of supervised release. He was sentenced in federal court after pleading guilty to one count of distribution of child pornography and two count of possession of child pornography in violation of 18 U.S.C. 2252(a)(4)(B). For…

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