Opinion ID: 4537855
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Indictment and PSR

Text: In a seventeen-count superseding indictment filed in October 1996, Bartolomeo, a member of the Hells Angels motorcycle club, was charged with conspiring to distribute cocaine and methamphetamine, and with possessing those drugs with the intent to distribute them. Based on the quantity of drugs for which he was deemed responsible, Bartolomeo's PSR calculated his base offense level (BOL) as 32. However, the PSR also stated that his prior convictions qualified Bartolomeo as a career offender under the Sentencing Guidelines, see U.S.S.G. § 4B1.1,1 which 1 The applicable version of the Guidelines provided that [a] defendant is a career offender if (1) the defendant was at least eighteen years old at the time the defendant committed the instant offense of conviction; (2) the instant offense of conviction is a felony that is either a crime of violence or a controlled substance offense; and (3) the defendant has at least two prior felony convictions of either a crime of violence or a controlled substance offense. U.S.S.G. § 4B1.1 (1997). A crime of violence under the Guidelines was defined as a federal or state law offense specifically named, including burglary of a dwelling and arson, as well as any crime that otherwise involves conduct that presents a serious potential - 3 - increased his offense level to 37 and produced a Criminal History Category (CHC) of VI.2 The PSR contained an undisputed description of Bartolomeo's involvement in two violent crimes against members of a rival motorcycle club. The first was described, in pertinent part, as follows: [O]n July 1, 1995, Bartolomeo and others chased Girard Giorgio on Route 3. Giorgio, a member of the Devil's Disciples Motorcycle Club, was riding his motorcycle with another member of the Devil's Disciples at the time. When Bartolomeo and others caught up with Giorgio, they beat him badly and stripped him of his Devil's Disciples colors. About two weeks after this incident, Bartolomeo bragged to an undercover officer posing as a drug customer that two or three weeks earlier he had kicked in the teeth of a Devil's Disciples member and boasted that this individual was still in critical condition and that [Bartolomeo] would have stabbed this individual in the heart if there had been fewer people around. risk of physical injury to another. Id. § 4B1.2(a)(2) (1997). The portion of the definition beginning with otherwise is known as the residual clause. 2 As the habeas court observed, [t]he predicate convictions for the career offender classification are not entirely clear. Bartolomeo v. United States, 316 F. Supp. 3d 539, 542 (D. Mass. 2018). However, the parties have proceeded on the assumption that the triggering predicates are Bartolomeo's 1993 conviction for assault and battery and his 1995 conviction for assault and battery on a police officer. See id. - 4 - The second episode occurred about two weeks after the conversation with the undercover officer recounted above: On Saturday, July 29, 1995, Bartolomeo accelerated his automobile at the intersection of Route 18 and Park Avenue in Weymouth and struck William Michaels. Michaels, a member of the Devil's Disciples, was riding his motorcycle at the time. Michaels later died as a result of the collision.