Source: http://openjurist.org/214/f3d/27
Timestamp: 2013-12-12 13:53:29
Document Index: 694025168

Matched Legal Cases: ['§ 1001', '§ 1702', '§ 2', '§ 2', '§ 2', '§ 3']

214 F3d 27 United States of America v. Louis Duclos | OpenJurist
214 F. 3d 27 - United States of America v. Louis Duclos	Home214 f3d 27 united states of america v. louis duclos
214 F3d 27 United States of America v. Louis Duclos 214 F.3d 27 (1st Cir. 2000)
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, APPELLEE,v.LOUIS DUCLOS, DEFENDANT, APPELLANT.
No. 99-1758.
Jean B. Weld, Assistant United States Attorney, with whom Paul M. Gagnon, United States Attorney, was on brief, for appellant.
Joseph S. Berman, with whom Berman and Dowell was on brief, for appellee.
This is an appeal from a conviction and sentence imposed by the United States District Court for the District of New Hampshire. Defendant-Appellant Louis Duclos offers two grounds for reversal of his conviction and one claimed error in sentencing. We reject Duclos's claimed trial errors as having no basis in law or fact and find that the district court did not abuse its discretion in imposing sentence. Accordingly, we affirm.
This case involves a relationship gone horribly awry. While many of the predicate facts are in dispute, this much is clear: Duclos was involved with a woman named Angela Gillis, and after that relationship ended, he invested a great deal of time and energy in searching for her. It is this search that brought about the events leading to his prosecution.
The specific nature and chronology of the relationship between Duclos and Gillis is complicated. The full record (including a host of pro se filings) details the many vacillations between Duclos and Gillis. The crux of the matter, however, is that when Gillis left Duclos, she resumed a previous relationship with Ronald Bossey. Duclos, for his part, simply would not let go. Over an extended period of time he engaged in a pattern of behavior that both the government and Gillis credibly characterize as stalking.
As part of Duclos's multi-faceted plan to locate Gillis and rescue her from the clutches of Bossey, as he saw it, Duclos monitored the post office box that Bossey shared with Gillis. On September 15, 1997, Duclos filed a change-of-address card in the United States Post Office in Laconia, New Hampshire, where Bossey's box was located. The card requested that the United States Postal Service forward all mail addressed to the post office box of Ronald Bossey to a new address: Duclos's home address. Duclos signed the form "Ronald Bossey." Because the card requested that the change be permanent, Bossey's post office box was closed, and the lock was changed.
Ten days after diverting Bossey's mail, Duclos apparently attempted to cancel the forwarding order. Because he had denoted the earlier change as permanent, he was unsuccessful.
In late September or early October of 1997, Ronald Bossey attempted to retrieve mail from his rented box, only to find that the lock had been changed. Bossey inquired about this and learned that there had been a permanent change-of-address request. When the postal clerk compared the signature on the change-of-address card with the one on Bossey's driver's license, it was apparent that the card had been forged.
Soon thereafter, United States Postal Inspector Peter Keefe obtained the original change-of-address card and interviewed Bossey, who led him to Duclos. When Keefe spoke to Duclos, Duclos told Keefe "that he was not going to lie," and admitted filing the card.
Duclos explained his actions, both to Keefe and later at trial, by arguing that he had done what he did out of a desire to protect Gillis. Duclos claimed that he understood Bossey to be a violent person, who had been dishonorably discharged from the military and who kept a firearm in his apartment. Duclos also believed that Bossey had taken money from Gillis, including a death benefit check due her because of the death of her husband. Duclos also claimed that he feared that Gillis, who was pregnant, was using drugs with Bossey.
Apparently, Duclos monitored the post office box for a number of weeks and then eventually submitted the false address card. The government presented testimony at trial in which "[Duclos] said he figured they may have made plans the prior month to go somewhere and that he would be able to trace them via the telephone bill of the calls they made."
A federal grand jury indicted Duclos on two charges: filing a false statement with the United States Postal Service, in violation of 18 U.S.C. §§ 1001 (Supp. IV 1998), and obstructing correspondence, in violation of 18 U.S.C. §§ 1702 (1994). At trial, Duclos invoked a defense of necessity, claiming that his actions were taken out of fear for Gillis' safety and a desire to protect her. The jury rejected these defenses, convicting him on both counts.
The United States Probation Department recommended a base offense level of 4, pursuant to U.S.S.G. §§§§ 2F1.1 and 2H3.3(b). The Department also recommended an increase of two levels for taking undelivered United States mail, pursuant to U.S.S.G. §§ 2B1.1(b)(3)(A), an increase of two levels for more than minimal planning under U.S.S.G. §§ 2B1.1(b)(4)(A), and an increase of two levels for obstruction of justice under U.S.S.G. §§ 3C1.1. Duclos mad