NONPRECEDENTIAL DISPOSITION To be cited only in accordance with Fed. R. App. P. 32.1


# United States Court of Appeals

For the Seventh Circuit Chicago, Illinois 60604

Argued August 7, 2013 Decided August 9, 2013



### Before

F RANK H. E ASTERBROOK , Chief Judge

D ANIEL A. M ANION , Circuit Judge

M ICHAEL S. K ANNE , Circuit Judge

No. 13

- 1466

U NITED S TATES OF A MERICA , Plaintiff

- Appellee
,

v

.
M ATTHEW S MITH

- M ECK , Defendant

- Appellant

. Appeal from the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, Eastern Division.

No. 11 CR 493 Elaine E. Bucklo
, Judge

.

Order

After 20 years of service in the Marine Corps, from which he retired as a major at age 50, Matthew Smith

- Meck went to work for Northrop Grumman. He discovered that the firm did not carefully review his expense reports and began to charge personal e xpenses to a company

- issued credit card. By the time he was caught ( 2 1⁄2 years later) and fir ed, he had stolen more than $215 ,000 from his employer. He then applied for a job that required a security clearance. In seeking that clearance, he denied ever having been f ired from any job or ever misusing a company credit card.

Smith

- Meck pleaded guilty to mail fraud, 18 U.S.C. §1341
, and making false stat ements to an agency of the United States, 18 U.S.C. §1001(a)(2). The district court calc ulated his range under the Sent encing Guidelines at 21 to 27 months and imposed a 21

- month sentence. Smith

- Meck concedes that the calculation was correct yet nonetheless maintains that his sentence is unreasonably high. He contends, indeed, that any impri sonment would be excessive.No. 13

- 1466 Page 2

He a rgued in the district court that his conduct was aberrant (coming as it did after a lifetime of law

- abiding conduct) and caused by post

- traumatic stress disorder. He a ttribut es that condition not to his military service but to abuse by his wife, who Smith

Meck con tends threatened to kill him, going so far as to point guns at him and attack him with a night stick (which cracked one of his ribs). The district judge explained that his crimes , which involved repeated transgressions, could not be characterized as abe rrant. That conclusion has since been approved by this court. United States v. Townsend
, No. 12

- 3326 (7th Cir. July 26, 2013). And the judge stated that post

- traumatic stress di sorder could not explain a years

- long course of fraudulent conduct. The jud ge thus di scussed each of the circumstances on which Smith

- Meck relied. A sentencing judge’s o bligation to acknowledge and address the defendant’s principal contentions does not imply a need to agree with the defendant’s position. The district judge did no t abuse her discretion by rejecting Smith

- Meck’s arguments for a lower sentence.

On appeal, Smith

- Meck contends that the district judge erred by not taking his mil itary service into account. See U.S.S.G. §5H1.11. There are two problems with that co ntention . First, he did not ask the district judge to do so. Second, the judge did discuss the subject, which may explain why she selected the bottom of the Guidelines range. Although his military record surely deserved credit, the fact that he lied to obtain a s ecurity clearance cuts against him. Smith

- Meck’s own position is that his mental cond ition has rendered him an inveterate liar, willing to abuse his employer’s trust for his own gain . He should have been well aware that a person with these attributes is unf it for a security clearance; he could present a danger to the nation if given a position in which he was entrusted with secrets. Under the circumstances, his 2 1

- month sentence is reasonable.

A FFIRMED