Opinion ID: 184397
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Cumulative Application of Sections 3B1.1(c)

Text: 21 and 2F1.1(b)(2)(A) 22 Bapack next argues that by cumulatively enhancing her sentence for her managerial role and for more than minimal planning, the sentencing court punished her twice for the same conduct. Since Bapack did not raise the double-counting argument below, we review the district court's decision for plain error. See United States v. Plunkett, 125 F.3d 873, 874-75 (D.C.Cir.1997). The Guidelines provide: 23 Absent an instruction to the contrary, the adjustments from different guideline sections [327 U.S.App.D.C. 215] are applied cumulatively (added together). For example, the adjustments from § 2F1.1(b)(2) (more than minimal planning) and § 3B1.1 (Aggravating Role) are applied cumulatively. 24 Guidelines Manual, § 1B1.1 application note 4(p 2) (emphasis added). Nevertheless Bapack encourages us to set aside the enhancement for more than minimal planning, asserting that the holding in United States v. Gottfried, 58 F.3d 648, 653 (D.C.Cir.1995), supports her. We disagree. In Gottfried, we had to decide whether enhancements for more than minimal planning and for abuse of a position of trust were duplicative. See 58 F.3d at 652-53. We held that, because the two enhancements were based on separate elements of the defendant's offense, their cumulative application did not punish him twice for the same conduct. Id. at 653. In Gottfried we noted in dicta two Sixth Circuit cases to the same effect. Id. Although those cases--United States v. Chichy, 1 F.3d 1501, 1507 (6th Cir.1993), and United States v. Romano, 970 F.2d 164, 167 (6th Cir.1992)--held that enhancements for an organizing role and for more than minimal planning could be impermissibly duplicative, they did not involve a situation in which a different element supported each enhancement. Bapack's case is plainly distinguishable from those cases because her sentence was enhanced for her managerial/supervisory role and for more than minimal planning. Moreover, as the Sixth Circuit has since acknowledged, both Chichy and Romano were overruled in 1993 when the Sentencing Commission amended the Commentary to section 1B1.1 to include the unequivocal language quoted above. See United States v. Cobleigh, 75 F.3d 242, 251 (6th Cir.1996) (The Sentencing Commission's regulations have thus abrogated the holdings of Romano and Chichy.). [B]ecause the force of the [Guidelines] commentary is near complete, United States v. Smaw, 22 F.3d 330, 333 (D.C.Cir.1994), we, like the Sixth Circuit, think that Application Note 4 to section 1B1.1 of the Guidelines is dispositive. 25 The enhancements Bapack received were based on different elements of the offenses of which she was convicted. The aggravating role enhancement (as Bapack herself argues) was based on her directing nurses to falsify records of treatment visits that were not made whereas the more than minimal planning enhancement was based on the overarching fraudulent billing scheme Bapack and her co-defendant engineered. Thus, contrary to her contention, Bapack was not found to have engaged in more than minimal planning because she supervised or managed a participant, nor was she found to have supervised or managed a participant because she engaged in more than minimal planning. Accordingly, the district court did not err, much less plainly err, in cumulatively applying sections 3B1.1(c) and 2F1.1(b)(2)(A) of the Guidelines to enhance Bapack's sentence.