Opinion ID: 196984
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Carmen Pacheco-Rijos

Text: 46 Under the indictment returned in March of 1994, appellant Pacheco-Rijos was charged with four offenses: Count One charged her with conspiracy to distribute drugs, in amounts of not less than fifty grams of cocaine base, not less than five kilograms of cocaine, not less than one kilogram of heroin, and some marijuana, from in or about January of 1993 until in or about March of 1994, in violation of 21 U.S.C. §§ 841(a)(1) and 846; Counts Three, Four and Five charged her, along with other co-defendants, with knowingly using and carrying firearms during and in relation to her drug trafficking, in violation of 18 U.S.C. §§ 921(a)(3) & (c)(1) & 924(c)(1). 47 Pacheco-Rijos was arraigned on March 14, 1994, at which time she pled not guilty. On September 7, 1994, she changed her plea to guilty to Count One, which charged her with violating 21 U.S.C. § 846. 16 Her plea was offered pursuant to Rule 11(e)(1)(A) & (B) of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure, under which the parties may recommend sentencing terms but those terms are not binding upon the court. Cf. Fed.R.Crim.P. 11(e)(1)(C). 48 The agreement recommended a base offense level of 28 under U.S.S.G. § 2D1.1 and a downward adjustment of three levels for acceptance of responsibility under U.S.S.G. § 3E1.1(b), resulting in an offense level of 25. The defendant acknowledged that although those preliminary calculations resulted in a guideline range of 57 to 71 months, she could receive a statutory minimum of 60 months imprisonment. The agreement, however, left the door open for application of other provisions which might affect her sentence. 17 49 At the outset of the sentencing hearing, the district judge mischaracterized the plea agreement as a Rule 11(e)(1)(C) agreement, under which the sentencing judge would be required to accept the agreement in toto or reject it, thereby allowing the defendant to withdraw her plea. Such an agreement would have represented the parties' negotiations concerning all the guideline provisions that should determine the sentence. 50 Pacheco-Rijos' plea agreement, however, did not pretend to such completeness. 51 When counsel for Pacheco-Rijos moved for a three-level adjustment for acceptance of responsibility, the court accepted it both because the plea agreement had contemplated such an adjustment and because he found Pacheco-Rijos' conduct merited it. He accepted an offense level of 25, with a guideline range of 57 to 71 months. 52 However, when counsel requested the application of the safety valve provision, 21 U.S.C. § 3553(f) and U.S.S.G. § 5C1.2, and, if granted, a further two-level reduction for minor participant status under U.S.S.G. § 3B1.2(b), requests that were not in the plea agreement, the district court declined to accept them. The appellant argued that she met all the requirements of the safety valve provision. The government responded that, among other things, Pacheco-Rijos had failed honestly to disclose her own participation in the conspiracy. 18 In support of its claim, the government stated simply that her failure can be gleaned from the Presentence Report in this case. 53 The prosecutor's citation to the PSR is perplexing. It appears that initially the PSR had not placed Pacheco-Rijos among the defendants for whom the government had designated a minimal or minor role, but among those for whom no role had been adjudicated. 19 However, after reviewing the objection of the defendant with respect to the scope of her participation, the probation officer, in the final PSR, adopted Pacheco-Rijos' own view of her participation, 20 designating her as a minor participant and characterizing her role as passive. 54 Notwithstanding, the sentencing judge denied the request for relief from the mandatory minimum sentence. He summarily concluded: 5C1.2 does not apply, because she has not cooperated fully as required by guideline Section 5C1.2(5). In addition, he stated: And besides that, there is a stipulation in the plea agreement [that] she be sentenced to 60 months. That was good enough in September, [so it] should be good enough today. 55 In the light of his rejection of the safety valve provision, the judge indicated that there was no need to consider whether Pacheco-Rijos should have been given a two-level adjustment based on her role in the offense, an adjustment that would have brought her sentence under the Guidelines still further below the 60 month statutory minimum. 21 56 Continuing the same apparent misapprehension under which he labored from the beginning, the district judge concluded the sentencing hearing by reiterating: I should make it very clear on this record that her plea agreement was an 11--Federal Rule Criminal Procedure 11(e)(1)(C) plea. And therefore the 60 months that I have given her was precisely what she bargained for during the plea negotiations. 57
58 Appellant Pacheco-Rijos argues that the sentencing court erred in declining to grant her relief from the mandatory minimum sentence for the drug trafficking in which she admits she was involved. See 18 U.S.C. § 3553(f); U.S.S.G. § 5C1.2. The government responds that the sentencing court appropriately determined that she was not entitled, in the first instance, to relief from the mandatory minimum, and that, in any event, the district court's decision does not amount to clear error. 59 We review for clear error the district court's factual determinations with respect to whether the appellant was entitled to relief from the mandatory minimum under U.S.S.G. § 5C1.2. United States v. Rodrguez, 60 F.3d 193, 195 n. 1 (5th Cir.) (court's refusal to apply § 5C1.2 is a factual finding reviewed for clear error), cert. denied, --- U.S.----, 116 S.Ct. 542, 133 L.Ed.2d 446 (1995); see also United States v. Montanez, 82 F.3d 520, 521 (1st Cir.1996). 60 We begin our examination with an observation. The review is complicated by the paucity of detail in the record below and our concern for two obvious mistakes in the sentencing hearing which shaped the outcome: first, that the district court wrongly believed that the plea agreement was a binding one and Pacheco-Rijos was arguing for an outcome for which she had not negotiated; and second, that the PSR somehow supported the government's position on Pacheco-Rijos' cooperation, when it did not. 61 When Congress enacted the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994, it passed into law a safety valve provision which permits judicial departures for some low-level, first-time offenders who otherwise would face mandatory minimum sentences. Pub.L. No. 103-322 § 80001, 108 Stat. 1796, 1985 (1994) (amending 18 U.S.C. § 3553). 22 62 Under 18 U.S.C. § 3553(f), a defendant may avoid the mandatory minimum and be sentenced below the applicable guideline term, if he or she meets the five requirements set forth in the provision. The section provides in pertinent part: 63 ... the court shall impose a sentence ... without regard to any statutory minimum sentence, if the court finds at sentencing, after the Government has been afforded the opportunity to make a recommendation, that:(1) the defendant does not have more than 1 criminal history point, as determined under the sentencing guidelines; 64 (2) that defendant did not use violence or credible threats of violence or possess a firearm or other dangerous weapon (or induce another participant to do so) in connection with the offense; 65 (3) the offense did not result in death or serious bodily injury to any person; 66 (4) the defendant was not an organizer, leader, manager, or supervisor of others in the offense ...; and (5) not later than the time of the sentencing hearing, the defendant has truthfully provided to the Government all information and evidence the defendant has concerning the offense or offenses that were part of the same course of conduct or of a common scheme or plan, but the fact that the defendant has no relevant or useful other information to provide or that the Government is already aware of the information shall not preclude a determination by the court that the defendant has complied with this requirement. 67 18 U.S.C. § 3553(f); see also U.S.S.G. § 5C1.2 (authorizes sentence below the mandatory minimum for specific offenses, subject to compliance with section 3553(f)); Montanez, 82 F.3d at 521 (discussion of the aims of the legislation). Notably, whether there is a binding plea agreement or, as here, a non-binding agreement, if it is determined that a defendant has met the five requirements of the provision, the judge is required to set aside the mandatory minimum and sentence the defendant under the Guidelines. 68 In this case, the district judge denied application of the safety valve provision, focusing only on the issue of Pacheco-Rijos' cooperation. 23 Apparently accepting the government's argument that the facts which could be gleaned from the PSR supported denying application of section 3553(f)(5), the judge determined that Pacheco-Rijos did not deserve relief from her mandatory minimum sentence because she had failed to cooperate fully. In so deciding, he also stressed that Pacheco-Rijos had not negotiated for relief from the mandatory minimum in her plea agreement, an agreement which, as noted above, he incorrectly believed to be binding. 69 Section 3553(f)(5) requires that defendants truthfully provide the government no later than at sentencing all the information they have regarding the offense or offenses that were part of the same course of conduct or part of a common scheme or plan. 18 U.S.C. § 3553(f)(5); U.S.S.G. § 5C1.2. 70 Questions with respect to the scope of both a defendant's duty to provide information--and the very nature of that information--have already confronted this Court. In United States v. Wrenn, 66 F.3d 1, 3 (1st Cir.1995), we held that where the only disclosure to the government was made inadvertently--and through the government's own efforts to intercept the defendant's conversations--that defendant could not be said to have provided the information to the government. Further, the Wrenn Court noted that where the defendant had indicated that he knew the identity of customers involved in a drug trafficking enterprise, but he refused to provide any names, it certainly was not erroneous for the district court to determine that the defendant had failed to provide all information which he concededly had. Id. 71 The question of scope was further addressed in United States v. Montanez, 82 F.3d 520 (1st Cir.1996), in which this Court confronted a slightly different question: whether the requirement that a defendant truthfully provide all information established an affirmative duty on the part of that defendant to offer himself or herself up to the government for debriefing. Id. at 522-523. While we determined that section 3553(f)(5) does not require that much, 24 we agreed with the district court that what the defendant provided in that case was patently inadequate. For although Montanez agreed that he was supplied drugs that he then delivered, he offered no plausible reason why he did not provide the government with the names of his drug suppliers. Under the circumstances, we found that Montanez did not disclose information that he might reasonably be expected to possess, nor persuasively explain its absence. Id. at 523; see also Wrenn, 66 F.3d at 3. 72 This case is not like Wrenn or Montanez. In a submission by her counsel, included as part of her PSR, Pacheco-Rijos explained the limits of her involvement in the conspiracy: She was a passive participant, knowing that drugs were stored in the house and doing little to stop it. She said that she never handled the drugs, nor was she aware of the firearms. 73 That characterization was never objected to nor explicitly contradicted by the government. Furthermore, it appears to have been accepted by the probation department whose amended report recommended granting Pacheco-Rijos a two-level adjustment as a minor participant and specifically characterized her as a passive member of the conspiracy. 74 While it is entirely possible that a minor participant in the criminal activities might know more than her designated role suggests, the government offered nothing concrete to so indicate. In this case, as distinguished from Wrenn or Montanez, the government did not rebut a facially plausible tale of limited involvement by pointing to information this defendant must have known; there was no allegation that this defendant knew the names of drug suppliers or customers and refused to indicate those names. There was no specific information the government alleged that Pacheco-Rijos had and failed to provide. 75 The government cannot assure success simply by saying, We don't believe the defendant, and doing nothing more. If it could, it would effectively eliminate the self-conscious difference between the safety valve provision, U.S.S.G. § 5C1.2, which obligates the district court to determine if the defendant has truthfully provided all information, see Montanez, 82 F.3d at 523, and the substantial assistance provision, U.S.S.G. § 5K1.1, which permits, upon the government's motion and at the court's discretion, a downward adjustment for certain defendants who have provided substantial assistance to the government. 25 76 In the PSR, there was one conceivable basis for the government's position, a basis which, standing alone, is wholly inadequate: that because Pacheco-Rijos shared living quarters with other co-defendants, 26 she must have had more information than she provided to the government. 77 Section 3553(f)(5) does not invite such speculation. If mere conjecture based on personal relationships could bar application of section 3553(f)(5), in all cases where minor participants knew others more involved, the safety valve provision would be beyond their grasp. Such a result was not intended by Congress and cannot be permitted here. Therefore, district court's bare conclusion that Pacheco-Rijos did not cooperate fully, absent either specific factual findings or easily recognizable support in the record, cannot be enough to thwart her effort to avoid imposition of a mandatory minimum sentence. 27 78 Accordingly, we vacate the sentence and remand this case for the purpose of allowing the district court to revisit this issue and clarify the record by filing supplemental findings. 28 In the event that the court finds its initial calculation in error, it should so identify and return, as well, to the issue of other adjustments, if appropriate, under the Guidelines.