Opinion ID: 197582
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Refusal to Seek Treatment.

Text: 39 In pronouncing sentence, the district court mentioned the appellant's failure to pursue counseling for alcohol abuse and domestic violence. The appellant claims that the court erroneously employed this finding as a third factor justifying the sentence, and contests it both as a matter of law (he asserts that refusal to seek treatment cannot form the basis for a departure) and as a matter of fact (he asserts that he had begun treatment before his arrest). 40 Speaking broadly, the absence of a mitigating factor ordinarily cannot be treated as the presence of an aggravating factor, and, therefore, it might arguably be error to premise an upward departure on a finding, simpliciter, that a defendant refused to seek voluntary treatment. 7 We decline to pursue the point for two reasons. First, the record in this case, read as a whole, casts doubt upon the appellant's claim that the court used this finding as an independent basis for departing. Rather, the sentencing transcript suggests that the court considered the defendant's failure to seek help primarily as evidence that Brewster had every prospect of continuing [the violent domestic abuse] in the future and of continuing to indulg[e] in a dangerous and highly reprehensible ... course of conduct. 41 Second, to the extent--if at all--that the court blended this finding into the departure mix, any error would be harmless. When a departure rests on a combination of valid and invalid grounds, a reviewing court should uphold it as long as (1) the extent of departure is reasonable in relation to the valid grounds, (2) the exclusion of the invalid ground does not undermine the departure rationale articulated by the sentencing court, and (3) whole-record review offers an assurance that excision of the invalid ground probably would not have altered the sentence imposed. See United States v. Diaz-Bastardo, 929 F.2d 798, 800 (1st Cir.1991); see also Figaro, 935 F.2d at 7. 42 In this instance, it is readily apparent that the district court's decision to depart depended primarily on the appellant's prolonged campaign of domestic violence and secondarily on the uncounted convictions. It is equally apparent that those grounds, standing alone, are fully adequate to support the departure. What the court perceived to be the appellant's refusal to seek treatment was at most a throw-in--a lagniappe that in all likelihood did not sway, or even affect, the decision to depart. Hence, we rule that the district court's superfluous refusal to treat comments, whether or not intended as an additional ground for departure, do not undermine the sentence.