Opinion ID: 562667
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 10

Heading: sentencing (gines)

Text: 57 Romano Gines also challenges an enhancement to his sentence. The district court increased the offense level used to calculate Gines' sentencing range by two points based on a finding that Gines had obstructed justice, see U.S.S.G. Sec. 3C1.1, by giving a false statement to law enforcement officials during an abortive effort at cooperation with the government's investigation of Davis' drug activities. The facts underlying the enhancement were that in January 1989 Gines spoke with state and federal investigators concerning the narcotics conspiracy. After being sworn he gave a statement extensively describing his activities at the Belmont house, and identifying Jackson as the person who directed its affairs and Davis as someone who visited the house four or five times a day. Gines Sentencing Transcript at 34. Gines also stated that his knowledge of Davis' role was incomplete because Jackson and Davis excluded him from many of their conversations. Id. at 56. In May 1989, after Gines had been arrested on state drug charges and Davis and Jackson had been arrested on federal charges, Gines wrote a letter to the United States Attorney's office offering a fuller account of Davis' involvement in narcotics activities. The government argued at Gines' sentencing hearing that in the January interview Gines had withheld information from them about Davis' involvement in the drug sales made from the Belmont house, information he later revealed in his May letter. The district court, while noting a concern about the government's request, nevertheless found that the incompleteness of Gines' January statements warranted the imposition of a two-level enhancement for obstruction. 58 On appeal, Gines argues that he responded truthfully to the questions put to him during the January interview, but that, as the evidence at trial established, his direct contacts with Davis were limited. He contends that he gave the government all the information they asked him for, but that what they asked him for was less than all he knew. The government argues that Gines concealed information, and that it expended resources by using information provided by Gines for investigative purposes, only to find that Gines' information was misleading. Brief at 27. 59 Section 3C1.1 of the Guidelines provides: If the defendant willfully obstructed or impeded, or attempted to obstruct or impede, the administration of justice during the investigation, prosecution, or sentencing of the instant offense, increase by 2 levels. Both the plain language of the guideline and the 1990 amendments to the application notes that follow it suggest that the enhancement is not to be applied indiscriminately to any conduct that in any way hampers the investigation of a crime, but rather only to willful conduct that has a significant impact on the administration of justice. See Sec. 3C1.1 Application Note 2 (1990) (distinguishing between types of conduct to which this enhancement is intended to apply and less serious forms of conduct to which this enhancement is not intended to apply, but that ordinarily can appropriately be sanctioned by the determination of the particular sentence within the otherwise applicable guidelines range.). The 1990 amendment to the application note most pertinent to the conduct at issue in this case also speaks to the degree of obstruction that the government must establish before a district court applies the enhancement. It states that the enhancement is appropriate where the defendant provid[ed] a materially false statement to a law enforcement officer that significantly obstructed or impeded the official investigation or prosecution of the instant offense. U.S.S.G. Sec. 3C1.1, Application Note (3)(g) (emphasis added). 60 As with the various role-in-the-offense enhancements provided for in U.S.S.G. Sec. 3B1.1, obstruction of justice enhancements under Sec. 3C1.1 are reviewed under a clearly erroneous standard. Feekes, 929 F.2d at 338; United States v. Teta, 918 F.2d 1329, 1333 (7th Cir.1990); United States v. Wheelwright, 918 F.2d 226, 229 (1st Cir.1990); Brown, 900 F.2d at 1103. In this case, we are compelled to conclude that the district court clearly erred when it found that the government had established that Gines willfully provided a materially false statement that significantly hampered the government's investigation of Davis' activities. 61 First, we note that the government has not pointed to a single false statement made in Gines' January statement. Indeed, the recapitulation of his statement contained in the record, see Gines Sentencing Transcript at 54-56, suggests that he provided the government with a great deal of truthful information concerning the drug activities based in the Belmont house and the roles Davis and Jackson played in these activities, information corroborated by the witnesses who testified at trial. Rather, the government contends that Gines held back on it by failing to disclose all he knew about Davis' involvement in these operations. It is true that the May letter revealed more about Davis than did the January interview, but this perhaps says more about the depth of the government's questioning of Gines in January, at a relatively early stage of the investigation, than it does about any willful failure on his part to provide information about which the government inquired. Cooperating witnesses like Gines who have themselves been parties to a crime and are part of a larger conspiracy will typically be hesitant to reveal all they know, for reasons that range from a fear of retribution to a desire to keep the government interested in helping them by telling their story in bits and pieces. They do not necessarily obstruct justice by failing to divulge all they know early in their first encounter with investigators. The record here indicates no more than that Gines did not tell all he knew about Davis' role because he was not asked to. At least there is nothing in the district court's brief finding or in the record on appeal to suggest otherwise. 62 Second, assuming arguendo that Gines did willfully underplay Davis' involvement, we question whether the government could establish that Gines' failure to tell all significantly obstructed or impeded efforts to bring the conduct of Davis' drug business to a speedy end as required under the application notes to Sec. 3C1.1 as they now read, though not as they read when Gines was sentenced. Gines told the government that Davis would visit the Belmont house four or five times a day and confer with Jackson in a closed room to which Gines was not allowed entry. He also provided numerous other details concerning the cooking of powder cocaine into crack and the sale of crack by the network of street dealers. This information, together with what the government had previously learned from other cooperating witnesses such as Marcie Rupert, pointed them to Davis and Jackson. That Gines was something less than a motherlode of information does not establish that he impeded the investigation. Certainly he did nothing to throw the police off the scent of Davis' activities; the government's brief statement that it expended resources ... only to find out that Gines' information was misleading does not itself suffice to establish that Gines hampered the investigation in any significant way.