Opinion ID: 1214506
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: Whether the criminal charges were properly dismissed for violating respondents' double jeopardy rights

Text: Pursuant to Nevada's enactment of the Uniform Securities Act, the State may proceed civilly as well as criminally in a case like this. NRS 90.615-.660. The institution of parallel civil and criminal proceedings does not constitute a per se violation of the Double Jeopardy Clause. See United States v. Kordel, 397 U.S. 1, 11, 90 S.Ct. 763, 769, 25 L.Ed.2d 1 (1970). However, under certain circumstances a civil penalty may constitute punishment under the double jeopardy clause. United States v. Halper, 490 U.S. 435, 446-51, 109 S.Ct. 1892, 1900-03, 104 L.Ed.2d 487 (1989). In Halper, the Court held that a defendant already punished in a criminal prosecution could not be subjected to an additional civil sanction to the extent that the second sanction served the punitive purposes of retribution or deterrence. Id. at 448-49, 109 S.Ct. at 1901-02. In the instant case, the criminal prosecution followed the civil litigation, but it seems clear that double jeopardy is implicated regardless of the order of the proceedings. See, e.g., United States v. Sanchez-Escareno, 950 F.2d 193, 200 (5th Cir.1991), cert. denied, 506 U.S. 841, 113 S.Ct. 123, 121 L.Ed.2d 78 (1992) (the Halper principle that a civil penalty can be factored into the double jeopardy matrix should apply whether the civil penalty precedes or follows the criminal proceeding). We conclude that no double jeopardy violation occurred in the case before us simply because respondents in this case have not been assessed any penalties in the civil proceeding. It appears that the Double Jeopardy Clause does not apply when a civil award for an offense punished criminally is merely sought but not assessed. See United States v. Reed, 937 F.2d 575, 578 (11th Cir.1991) (Because no damage award has been imposed on defendant, the Halper test comparing money damages with the government's loss is inapposite to the facts of this case.); Manocchio v. Kusserow, 961 F.2d 1539, 1542 (11th Cir.1992) (where no monetary damages have been assessed, Halper does not apply); cf. Sanchez-Escareno, 950 F.2d at 200-01 (assessment of fines did not constitute punishment under the Double Jeopardy Clause where the government had not yet sought to enforce them). Therefore, the district court erred in concluding that the State's actions in bringing the criminal charges against respondents violated respondents' rights under the Double Jeopardy Clause.