UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT

NORTHERN DISTRICT OF INDIANA

HAMMOND DIVISION

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, )

)

Plaintiff, )

)

v. ) NO. 2:16CR89-PPS

)

SERGIO GARCIA, SR., )

)

Defendant. )

OPINION AND ORDER

Sergio Garcia, Sr. has returned with his sixth request for compassionate release. 

[DE 261.] This motion follows five previously denied requests for compassionate release

due to the coronavirus pandemic. [DE 186, 198, 199, 212, 214, 237, 239, 242, 244, 247.] 

This latest motion will also be denied, even assuming without deciding that Garcia has

satisfied the statutory requirement of exhaustion of administrative remedies.18 U.S.C.

§3582(c)(1)(A)(i). 

Garcia offers two concerns in support of his latest motion for compassionate

release. The first is again the COVID-19 pandemic. As Garcia well knows, the statutory

authority for a sentencing court to grant compassionate release from a term of

imprisonment requires a showing that “extraordinary and compelling reasons warrant

such a reduction” of the defendant’s sentence. §3582(c)(1)(A)(i). Garcia’s argument

concerning COVID risks is no more compelling than it has ever been. He adds no new

allegations concerning his medical condition andthe associated risk of infection. [DE

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261 at 3.] He omits any reference to the fact that he has already survived what appears

to have been a mild case of COVID infection, from which some immunity will doubtless

have been gained, and does not indicate whether or not he has been vaccinated against

COVID-19 with any of the 191,324 doses of vaccine administered within the Bureau of

Prisons to-date. See https://www.bop.gov/coronavirus/ (last visited 6/10/2021). 

Garcia speculates that his institution – the Federal Prison Camp in Duluth, Minnesota –

is “ripe for multiple reinfections.” [DE 261 at 3.] This epidemiological conclusion is

unsupported by relevant evidence and cannot be credited, particularly when the

website of the Bureau of Prisons currently lists no active cases of COVID-19 at FPCDuluth. See https://www.bop.gov/coronavirus/ (last visited 6/10/2021). 

Garcia’s second contention in support of his request for compassionate release is

that his mother-in-law is on her death bed in Munster, Indiana. [DE 261 at 3.] This is a

sad family circumstance to be sure, but cannot reasonably be characterized as an

extraordinary or compelling reason for reducing the prison term of one convicted of

serious felonies. The penalty of incarceration removes a defendant from society at large,

as well as from intimate participation in the life of his family, including major events

such as births, weddings, illness, and death. While I am sympathetic to Garcia’s concern

for his mother-and-law, and his desire to support his wife during this difficult time, the 

matter is not one that supports compassionate release under §3582(c)(1)(A)(i).

ACCORDINGLY:

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Sergio Garcia, Sr.‘s latest “Motion Seeking Compassionate Release via 18 U.S.C.

§3582(c)(1)(A)” [DE 261] is DENIED.

SO ORDERED.

ENTERED: June 10, 2021. /s/ Philip P. Simon 

UNITED STATES DISTRICT JUDGE

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