Opinion ID: 3056546
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Three-Level Enhancement

Text: Next, Rodriguez contends that the district court erred in determining that she substantially interfered with the administration of justice. Specifically, Rodriguez argues that the three-level enhancement cannot apply because the government resources expended were part of the investigation into and the prosecution of her false claims. See United States v. Johnson, 485 F.3d 1264, 1271 (11th Cir. 2007) (noting that “the government correctly recognized at sentencing that it could not rely on any investigative costs incurred prior to Johnson’s false testimony or the expenses associated with prosecuting Johnson's underlying perjury offense.”). “We review the district court’s factual findings for clear error and its application of the Guidelines de novo.” United States v. Newman, 614 F.3d 1232, 1235 (11th Cir. 2010) (internal quotation marks omitted). Section 2J1.2(b)(2) of the Guidelines provides a three-level enhancement if the offense resulted in a “substantial interference with the administration of justice.” U.S.S.G. § 2J1.2(b)(2). The commentary explains that substantial interference with the administration of justice includes, among other things, “the unnecessary 6 Case: 11-15465 Date Filed: 11/30/2012 Page: 7 of 12 expenditure of substantial governmental or court resources.” § 2J1.2 cmt. n.1. In United States v. Johnson, we interpreted this commentary with regard to a perjury offense. 485 F.3d at 1271. We upheld the district court’s application of a three-level enhancement under § 2J1.3(b)(2) for unnecessary expenditure of substantial government or court resources. As a result of the defendant’s false grand jury testimony, the government was forced to identify and interview several other witnesses, review the defendant’s records, and reconvene the grand jury, which required the government to pay travel expenses for grand jury members, prosecutors, and witnesses. Id. at 1272. We also held that the government need not specify the number of hours expended by government employees to sustain the enhancement. Id. at 1271. In this case, the record shows the expenditure of substantial government resources that were required to investigate Rodriguez’s initial claims of sexual assault. First, Rodriguez was interviewed on multiple occasions by different agents. She was moved to a different jail during the investigation. An Assistant United States Attorney had to prepare a search warrant in order to obtain DNA from the alleged perpetrator. DNA had to be collected from Rodriguez’s boyfriend and her alleged attacker. Lastly, the DNA collected (pants, hair, saliva) had to be tested and analyzed. DNA testing and analysis is a time consuming and 7 Case: 11-15465 Date Filed: 11/30/2012 Page: 8 of 12 expensive process. The record reflects that these resources were spent investigating Rodriguez’s allegations and identifying her alleged assailant, and thus are attributable to her criminal conduct for purposes of the Guidelines. Rodriguez has not shown that the district court clearly erred in determining that she substantially interfered with the administration of justice by causing the unnecessary expenditure of substantial governmental resources.