Opinion ID: 4394859
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Fourth and Seventh Circuits’ Decisions

Text: While not directly ruling on the initial-abuser-disaggregation issue, two other decisions of our sister circuits bear mentioning. That is because both decisions, post-Paroline, (1) emphasized the district court’s wide discretion inherent in determining the amount of restitution, (2) affirmed restitution awards under various methodologies against possessors of child pornography, and (3) refused to impose more structure beyond the Supreme Court’s multi-factored test. See United States v. Dillard, 891 F.3d 151, 160-62 (4th Cir. 2018) (noting that Paroline did not set any “evidentiary minimums” for establishing restitution, that “[p]ost-Paroline, our sister courts of appeals have approved of various methods of determining a restitution award,” and that “[d]istrict courts have great discretion in selecting an appropriate methodology”); United States v. Sainz, 827 F.3d 602, 605-07 (7th Cir. 2016) (discussing the district court’s ability to employ varying methodologies, including the 1/n method, to calculate a restitution amount under Paroline and stating that “the bottom line here is that the amount of the award is substantively reasonable”). We discuss Dillard and Sainz in detail, as they demonstrate not only how to apply the Paroline factors, but also a commonsense, practical approach to restitution for victims whose losses are caused by the continuing traffic in their child pornography images. 44 Case: 17-12349 Date Filed: 05/08/2019 Page: 45 of 67 In the Fourth Circuit’s Dillard decision, while the defendant was the initial abuser of one child victim, he also possessed images of other child victims with whom he had no contact. Dillard, 891 F.3d at 154. The district court denied all restitution to the non-contact victims because the record contained no evidence that the victims were aware Dillard had their images and no evidence connecting the non-contact victims’ harm to Dillard. Id. at 156. In reversing, the Fourth Circuit explained Paroline disavowed any such requirements. Id. at 159-60. The Fourth Circuit held the “[g]overnment satisfied its burden of causation by the uncontested evidence that Dillard’s offense conduct included the seven non-contact victims’ images” and “that these victims have outstanding losses caused by the continuing traffic in those images.” Id. at 160 (internal quotation marks omitted). As to how to calculate those non-contact victims’ losses caused by Dillard, the Fourth Circuit said the district court “‘might, as a starting point, determine the amount of the victim’s losses caused by the continuing traffic in the victim’s images’” and “‘then set an award of restitution in consideration of factors that bear on the relative causal significance of the defendant’s conduct in producing those losses.’” Id. at 160 (quoting Paroline, 572 U.S. at 460, 134 S. Ct. at 1728). The Fourth Circuit remanded for the district court to consider the Paroline factors and award at least some “non-nominal amount of restitution” for the losses of the noncontact victims whose images Dillard possessed. Id. at 161-62. Where it was 45 Case: 17-12349 Date Filed: 05/08/2019 Page: 46 of 67 “uncontested that the individuals seeking restitution were Dillard’s victims and had outstanding losses associated with the continued trade in their images, they were entitled by statute to some non-nominal amount of restitution.” Id. at 161 (citing Paroline, 572 U.S. at 458-60, 134 S. Ct. at 1727-28). Similarly, the Seventh Circuit’s decision in Sainz stresses the district court’s “considerable discretion in deciding the extent of a defendant’s restitution” who possessed child pornography. Sainz, 827 F.3d at 605. The defendant Sainz possessed six images of the victim that had circulated widely on the internet, but had no role in creating or distributing them. Id. at 604. The victim had “incurred financial losses such as future lost earnings, attorney fees, and medical and psychiatric expenses” that totaled $1.1 million. Id. at 604, 605 n.1. On appeal, the defendant Sainz did not challenge that he must pay some amount of restitution but argued that the $8,387.43 amount he was ordered to pay was “disproportionate to his relative role in causing” the victim’s losses. Id. at 604-05. Sainz also claimed “he was not a legal cause of [the victim’s] harm because hundreds or thousands of others also possessed the images, so she would have been harmed by others even if he had never possessed the images of her.” Id. at 604. Using the 1/n method advocated for by the government, the district court divided the total loss of $1.1 million by 136 because defendant Sainz was the 136th offender who was prosecuted and ordered to pay restitution. See id. at 605. By 46 Case: 17-12349 Date Filed: 05/08/2019 Page: 47 of 67 possessing and viewing the victim’s images, Sainz had re-victimized her and made her feel that the abuse was continuing. Id. at 604. In finding no legal error or abuse of discretion in the $8,387.43 restitution award, the Seventh Circuit affirmed and reasoned: (1) that the Supreme Court in Paroline “avoided rigid or mechanical rules” and left the district courts with “considerable discretion”; (2) the amount of restitution for a possessor like Sainz “should be neither ‘severe’ nor a ‘token or nominal amount’”; (3) Paroline does not require “district courts to consider in every case every factor mentioned” and the district court does “not err by not addressing every Paroline factor” 5; and (4) the Paroline factors are permissive, not mandatory and provide “rough guideposts” that “district courts might consider in determining a proper amount of restitution.” Id. at 605-07 (internal quotation marks omitted). The Seventh Circuit recognized that the 1/n method is not appropriate for all cases because, when n is “very small or very large, a more nuanced method may be required.” Id. at 607. The Seventh Circuit concluded, however, that the application of the 1/n method to Sainz’s case “resulted in a reasonable restitution order of $8,400 for an offender who possessed six images of the victim and indisputably contributed to her harm.” Id. 5 The Seventh Circuit explained some of the Paroline factors refer to information that may not be “reliably known,” such as “the number of offenders likely to be convicted in the future or the broader numbers of offenders who were involved but are unlikely to be caught.” Sainz, 827 F.3d at 607. The Seventh Circuit stated that “the Supreme Court made clear in Paroline that the difficulty of coming up with reasonable estimates for an indeterminate number of other offenders should not be a barrier to all compensation for victims of child pornography.” Id. 47 Case: 17-12349 Date Filed: 05/08/2019 Page: 48 of 67 We acknowledge that the defendant Sainz did not ask the court to disaggregate the losses from the initial abuser. Nonetheless, the Seventh Circuit’s decision is instructive because it emphasizes that (1) the district court has “considerable discretion,” (2) the court’s method of restitution calculation can vary from case to case depending on the facts, and (3) “the bottom line” is that the district court’s award of $8,387.43 was “substantively reasonable” for the defendant possessor Sainz, even though there were hundreds of other possessors of the same victim’s images. See id. at 604-607.