IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 

FOR THE DISTRICT OF OREGON 

LESLIE IBSEN ROGGE, 

Case No. 3:15-cv-01732-HZ 

Petitioner, 

OPINION AND ORDER 

v. 

MARION FEATHER, 

Respondent. 

Anthony D. Bornstein, Assistant Federal Public Defender 

101 S.W. Main Street, Suite 1700 

Portland, Oregon 97204 

Attorney for Petitioner 

Jared Hager, Assistant United States Attorney 

1000 SW Third Avenue, Suite 600 

Portland, OR 97204-2902 

Attorney for Respondent 

1 - OPINION AND ORDER 

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HERNANDEZ, District Judge. 

In 1984, Congress passed the Sentencing Reform Act ("SRA") 

as part of the Comprehensive Crime Control Act, significantly 

altering the administration of federal sentences. Federal 

inmates are generally entitled to parole consideration for 

crimes committed prior to the SRA's effective date of November 

1, 1987. Federal sentences imposed for crimes committed after 

the SRA's effective date are determinate in nature with no 

opportunity for parole, and carry less generous good-time credit 

calculations for prisoners than pre-SRA sentences. 

Petitioner brings this habeas corpus case pursuant to 28 

U.S.C. § 2241 challenging the computation of his federal 

sentence stemming from crimes committed both before and after 

the effective date of the SRA. He claims that despite the 

judicial imposition of three concurrent sentences in the Western 

District of Arkansas in 1997, the Bureau of Prisons ("BOP•) 

structured his sentences in a way that requires him to serve a 

portion of those sentences consecutively. For the reasons that 

follow, the Petition for Writ of Habeas Corpus (#1) is denied. 

DISCUSSION 

On October 3, 1984, a jury found petitioner guilty of two 

counts of Armed Bank Robbery in the Southern District of 

Florida, and the trial judge sentenced petitioner to 25 years in 

2 - OPINION AND ORDER 

Case 3:15-cv-01732-HZ Document 24 Filed 05/27/16 Page 2 of 7
prison. The following year, petitioner was convicted of two 

counts of Armed Robbery in the District of Idaho and sentenced 

to two 20-year prison terms. The 20-year sentences were ordered 

to run concurrently with each other, with one of the 20-year 

sentences running consecutively to the 25-year sentence from 

Southern Florida for an aggregate sentence of 45 years. 

On September 29, 1985, petitioner left federal custody in 

what he characterizes as an erroneous release, but respondent 

describes as an escape. Irrespective of how petitioner's 

absence is construed, he was no longer serving his federal 

sentence from September 29, 1985 until his arrest in Guatemala 

on May 19, 1996. 

During the years petitioner was no longer incarcerated, he 

committed three more bank robberies and related crimes in 

Arkansas (1986), North Carolina (1986), and Missouri (1991). 

Petitioner was prosecuted and convicted of these charges in the 

Western District of Arkansas which imposed sentences of 240 

months for the North Carolina crimes, 180 months for the 

Arkansas crimes, and 180 months for the Missouri crimes. The 

court ran all of these sentences concurrently with each other, 

but consecutively to the undischarged terms of imprisonment from 

Southern Florida and Idaho. Petitioner's Exhibit C. p. 3. 

3 - OPINION AND ORDER 

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Although appearing relatively straightforward, petitioner's 

sentence posed a technical problem for the BOP. The bank 

robberies in Arkansas and North Carolina, like those in Southern 

Florida and Idaho, took place prior to the effective date of the 

SRA such that petitioner was eligible for parole as to those 

sentences as well as the more generous, pre-SRA accrual of goodtime credits. He was not, however, entitled to the same credits 

and parole eligibility for his post-SRA Missouri sentence. As a 

result, the BOP was unable to aggregate all of petitioner's 

sentences and instead calculated his imprisonment in terms of 

two different sentences: (1) a pre-SRA aggregated sentence 

covering petitioner's convictions from Southern Florida, Idaho, 

North Carolina, and Arkansas; and (2) a consecutive post-SRA 

sentence stemming from his Missouri convictions. See Program 

Statement 5880. 28 (a pre-SRA sentence cannot be aggregated with 

a post-SRA sentence) . 

In his Petition, petitioner alleges that the BOP is 

improperly running two of his three sentences from the Western 

District of Arkansas consecutively. He asserts that his 180-

month Missouri sentence has a commencement date of March 19, 

2035 such that his good-time release date is not until April 12, 

2048. Petition (#1), p. 5. Based upon petitioner's assertions, 

the court appointed counsel to represent him in this matter. 

4 - OPINION AND ORDER 

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Appointed counsel filed a Memorandum in support of the Petition 

wherein he states that the BOP incorrectly calculated an 

aggregated pre-SRA term of 65 years. 1 Importantly, he represents 

that this error has now been corrected. Memo in Support (#21), 

p. 3. Similarly, Patricia Kitka, a Management Analyst for the 

BOP, declares that "[a]s a result of this litigation, I did find 

an error which has since been corrected. Petitioner's new law 

sentence now shows commencement upon the release date of his 45-

year 'old law' sentence[.]n Declaration of Patricia Kitka (#7), 

p. 6. 

Based upon the representation of petitioner's appointed 

attorney as well as the Kitka Declaration, petitioner's claim 

appears to have been resolved. The record reflects that 

petitioner is still serving his 45-year sentence from his 

Southern Florida and Idaho convictions, and that while the BOP 

will require him to serve his 180-month post-SRA Missouri 

conviction consecutively, it has properly run the North Carolina 

and Arkansas sentences concurrently. 

Although petitioner's appointed attorney raises a new claim 

challenging petitioner's parole guideline range, a supporting 

The 65-year figure represents petitioner's pre-SRA sentence if the BOP ran 

the 240-month North Carolina sentence consecutively to the 45-year term of 

imprisonment stemming from petitioner's Southern Florida and Idaho 

convictions. Petitioner's position is that the BOP did this, and also ran 

5 - OPINION AND ORDER 

Case 3:15-cv-01732-HZ Document 24 Filed 05/27/16 Page 5 of 7
memorandum is not the appropriate document in which to plead new 

claims. Even if this were not the case, petitioner has not 

carried his burden as to this claim, and the record before the 

court does not support it. 

Petitioner's supporting memorandum also takes issue with 

the BOP policy establishing two different sentences predicated 

on the dates of his offenses, but he does not suggest an 

alternative method of aggregating sentences that accrue goodtime credits differently and which differ in terms of parole 

eligibility, nor does he provide any authority to support his 

contention that the BOP's policy for dealing with the sentencing 

conflicts is not reasonable. To the contrary, the BOP's 

approach reasonably addresses legislatively-driven inconsistency 

in the administration of federal criminal sentences. See 

Chevron, U.S.A. v. Natural Resources Defense Council, 467 U.S. 

837, 845 (1984) (where an agency fills a statutory gap with its 

own policy, its construction will be upheld if it provides "a 

reasonable accommodation of conflicting policies") . Because 

petitioner's sentence is being properly administered, 

Petition for Writ of Habeas Corpus is denied. 

Ill 

his post-SRA 180-month Missouri sentence consecutively to his pre-SRA 

sentence, contrary to the Judgment from the Western District of Arkansas. 

6 - OPINION AND ORDER 

the 

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CONCLUSION 

For the reasons identified above, the Petition for Writ of 

Habeas Corpus (#1) is denied. 

IT rs so ORDERED. 

DATED this .J\ day of May, 2016. 

United States District Judge 

7 - OPINION AND ORDER 

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