Opinion ID: 755794
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: an introduction

Text: 13 Craig Coscarelli was charged in an eleven count indictment. Counts two through eleven charged substantive counts of wire fraud and mail fraud. The indictment did not contain any count alleging a substantive money laundering offense. Count 1, which is the source of the constitutional error in this case, charged one of those long, complicated and multi-headed hydras that prosecutors love to fashion--the multiple object conspiracy. Coscarelli decided to enter a guilty plea. At Coscarelli's Rule 11 hearing the district court, apparently misled by ambiguity in the indictment, erroneously understated the statutory maximum term of imprisonment by fifteen years, omitted any mention of the money laundering object when characterizing the offense charged in count 1, and then failed to require the government to establish any factual basis whatsoever for the money laundering object charged in that count. Coscarelli's first appointed counsel resigned shortly thereafter. 14 Notwithstanding the conspicuous absence of the money laundering object in the Rule 11 colloquy, that object showed up in the presentence report as the pivotal factor establishing Coscarelli's considerable sentence. Coscarelli (now represented by his third appointed counsel) filed objections, stating that he never intended to commit money laundering. The district court, being persuaded by Coscarelli's argument, simply omitted the money laundering object from Coscarelli's sentence calculation. 15 The government appealed, asserting Coscarelli's guilty plea to the money laundering object as the basis for its argument that Coscarelli should receive a harsher sentence than the one imposed. The government contended that Coscarelli pleaded guilty as charged, directing our Court to the indictment and portions of the Rule 11 hearing. Coscarelli, who thought he won below, did not cross-appeal, but argued that the Rule 11 hearing and his subsequent objections to the presentence report established that he did not intend to plead guilty to conspiracy to commit money laundering. 16 The panel held that the government's sentencing point was correct. Assuming a validly entered guilty plea as to the money laundering object of the multiple object conspiracy, Coscarelli's base offense level would correctly be determined using the money laundering guideline. The panel examined the Rule 11 transcript to locate the plea that was inextricably intertwined with and essential to the government's appeal. An examination of the Rule 11 transcript did not reveal, however, the pristine guilty plea described by the government. To the contrary, the Rule 11 hearing, and therefore the plea upon which the government sought to rely, was contaminated with plain and harmful error of constitutional magnitude.