Opinion ID: 153666
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 10

Heading: Mr. Veatch's Two-Level Increase for Obstruction of Justice

Text: 93 Defendant Veatch claims the court erred in imposing a two-level increase in his sentence for obstruction of justice. Our review is a three-step process if a district court makes an upward departure from the Sentencing Guidelines. United States v. White, 893 F.2d 276, 277-78 (10th Cir.1990). First, we make a de novo review of whether the circumstances cited by the district court justify a departure. Id. If a departure is warranted, then we review the underlying factual determinations for clear error. Id. Finally, we review the degree of departure for reasonableness. Id. 94 The Sentencing Guidelines provide: If the defendant wilfully obstructed or impeded, or attempted to obstruct or impede, the administration of justice during the investigation, prosecution, or sentencing of the instant offense, increase the offense level by 2 levels. U.S.S.G. § 3C1.1 (Nov. 1, 1994). The sentencing commentary to § 3C1.1 includes examples of obstruction of justice, such as the threatening, intimidating, or otherwise unlawfully influencing a co-defendant, witness, or juror, directly or indirectly, or attempting to do so. U.S.S.G. § 3C1.1, n. 3(a). In imposing the upward departure for obstruction of justice, the court stated: 95 Mr. Veatch, as is certainly made obvious by his recent conduct and removal from the courtroom, has been a difficult defendant. This has been an extraordinarily difficult case to conduct pursuant to the rules of procedure in this court. 96 The Sentencing Guidelines permit me to depart in circumstances in which the particular facts or factors either are not considered by the guidelines or present a degree of conduct in excess of that which is ordinarily involved. This is the kind of conduct but not the degree of conduct that is contemplated by the Sentencing Commission and contained within these guidelines. Specifically I find that, as I mentioned earlier, Mr. Veatch has threatened, intimidated or otherwise attempted to unlawfully influence in this case not only his codefendant but everyone including the judge, the prosecutors, the law enforcement officers, the U.S. Marshals, the probation officer involved in his presentence report, the jailers in the county jail where he is serving detention and his appointed counsel as well as his co-defendant's appointed counsel. Mr. Veatch has made threats to everyone of those persons or every class of persons including more than one in many classes. He has threatened or filed lawsuits, none of which to my knowledge have ever been served on anyone. He has, in effect, attempted to bring the system of justice, as it operates in this district, to a complete halt through his tactics of, for instance, filing endless and repetitive pleadings even after receiving rulings which clearly apply to the next-filed pleadings. He has taken inconsistent positions, for example, with respect to the issue of his competency; claiming that he was competent and then wishing to appeal a finding of competency; complaining about delays and requesting additional delays; complaining because hearings were scheduled on motions that he had filed. He has, in effect, testified at the trial of this action without having been placed under oath or subjecting himself to cross-examination through his questions and statements to the jury and to witnesses during trial. 97 (R., Veatch Sentencing Tr. at 16-17 (Jan. 6, 1995)). The court specifically found that Mr. Veatch had threatened, intimidated or otherwise attempted to unlawfully influence his codefendant, the judge, the prosecutors, the law enforcement officers, the U.S. Marshals, the probation officer involved in his presentence report, the jailers in the county jail where he was serving detention and his appointed counsel as well as his co-defendant's appointed counsel. The circumstances cited by the district court justified an upward departure for obstruction of justice pursuant to § 3C1.1. 98 After reviewing the record, we conclude that the district court was not clearly erroneous in its finding that Mr. Veatch had threatened, intimidated, or otherwise attempted to unlawfully influence those involved in his prosecution. Mr. Veatch filed numerous civil complaints containing an endless stream of pejorative and scandalous allegations involving Justices, judges, the grand jury, law enforcement agencies, the case agent, the victim of Mr. Veatch's scam, three prosecution witnesses, and the prosecutor. Mr. Veatch forced the recusal of one judge and attempted to force the recusal of the judge who presided over this case by including them in these patently frivolous lawsuits, which included allegations that were materially false and utterly absurd. Mr. Veatch challenged payment of court-appointed attorneys and filed a state bar complaint against his standby counsel. Numerous pleadings 7 filed by Mr. Veatch contained unfounded allegations of sexual misconduct and other types of improprieties by parties to the case. 99 Defendant Veatch contends that he was not acting willfully to obstruct justice, but was just defending himself. On the contrary, the record reflects a concerted effort by Mr. Veatch to threaten, intimidate, and unlawfully influence those involved in his criminal prosecution by abusing and misusing the legal process. Given Mr. Veatch's flagrant attempt to obstruct justice, we conclude the two-level upward departure was reasonable. 100 We conclude that the circumstances justified a departure from the Guidelines, the supporting factual findings cited by the court were not clearly erroneous, and the two-level upward departure was not unreasonable. 101