Opinion ID: 2995611
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: William and Vinette Crowley

Text: Sometime in 1992, federal authorities in the Western District of Wisconsin began to suspect that William and Vinette Crowley were distributing methamphetamine. Their home was the subject of two search warrants; both searches turned up evidence of methamphetamine distribution, such as scales, plastic baggies, and glass vials. In 1997, authorities obtained a warrant to seize a suspicious package intercepted by the U.S. Postal Service that was addressed to the Crowleys. A search revealed that the package contained two ounces of methamphetamine. Police then notified area delivery services, including the United Parcel Service (UPS), to watch for suspicious packages addressed to the Crowleys. The police directed that anyone discovering such a package should contact authorities. On June 30, 1997, UPS driver Cathleen Champaigne noticed a package addressed to the Crowleys. Remembering that police were on the lookout for suspicious packages sent to the Crowleys, she opened the package. Inside she found a tobacco- like substance that she suspected was marijuana. She flagged down a county deputy sheriff and asked him to notify the Superior Police Department. The deputy sheriff, in turn, contacted Superior police officers Jerome Koneczy and Todd Maas, who were assigned to the narcotics unit. Officers Koneczy and Maas caught up with Champaigne later that day as she was making a delivery. The three stood in Champaigne’s truck while the officers questioned her about the package. Champaigne told the officers her suspicions about the package’s contents. By this time, she had resealed the package for delivery. The police inspected the outside of the package and noted that it was similar to the package seized by the postal service earlier that month. Both packages had been addressed to Mr. Mrs. Crowley, 726 Winter with the state listed as Wi with no period, and both had been sent from California. After inspecting the outside of the package, Officer Koneczy handed it back to Champaigne. He became momentarily distracted by a car pulling behind Champaigne’s truck. Without warning, Champaigne reopened the package and began removing its contents. Among the items inside was a baggie containing what appeared to Officer Koneczy to be coffee grounds. From viewing the outside of the baggie, Officer Koneczy saw a hard, white substance hidden in the coffee grounds that he suspected was methamphetamine. The officers left and obtained a search warrant; a subsequent search revealed that the package contained 3.8 ounces of methamphetamine. Federal authorities continued to investigate the Crowleys’ activities and in January 2000 obtained a three- countindictment against the Crowleys and Jerry Hallgren, Vinette Crowley’s brother. Count 1 charged all three defendants with engaging in a conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine between November 1994 and February 1998, in violation of 21 U.S.C. sec. 846 and sec. 841. Counts 2 and 3 charged the Crowleys with possessing methamphetamine with intent to distribute, in violation of 21 U.S.C. sec. 841. The Crowleys moved to suppress the package seized from the UPS truck, arguing that Champaigne had been acting as an agent of the police when she opened the package, and that her warrantless search violated the Fourth Amendment. A magistrate judge held an evidentiary hearing and recommended denying the motion. The magistrate judge concluded that Champaigne’s actions could not be imputed to the police because she was acting on her own, without having received any direction from the police when she opened the package. The district court adopted the magistrate judge’s recommendation and denied the motion to suppress. Vinette Crowley subsequently entered a conditional plea of guilty to one count of attempted possession of methamphetamine with intent to distribute. Her plea agreement preserved her right to appeal the suppression issue. In the presentence report (PSR), the probation officer estimated that the conspiracy had involved 4,381 grams of methamphetamine. The probation officer recommended that Ms. Crowley be held responsible for approximately 850 grams of methamphetamine, representing amounts that two government witnesses admitted to shipping to the Crowleys from California over a period of months. The probationofficer noted that Ms. Crowley had handled the details of the shipments, including wiring money and tracking the missing packages that had been confiscated by law enforcement. Based on her plea agreement, Ms. Crowley and the government both argued at sentencing that she should receive a downward adjustment as a minor participant in the conspiracy. See U.S.S.G. sec. 3B1.2(b). The district court rejected this argument, finding that Ms. Crowley was not a minor participant in the transactions for which she was being held responsible, but instead was significantly involved in acquiring the California shipments. The court sentenced Ms. Crowley to 97 months’ imprisonment, three years of supervised release, and a $100 special assessment. William Crowley entered a conditional plea to the conspiracy count, also preserving the suppression issue for appeal. The probation officer recommended that Mr. Crowley be held responsible for the entire 4,381 grams as the conspiracy’s leader. The district court accepted this recommendation and sentenced Mr. Crowley to 240 months’ imprisonment, three years of supervised release, and a $100 special assessment.