Opinion ID: 2994102
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Charles Kroledge

Text: The sentencing court based its finding of obstruction of justice against Charles Kroledge, among numerous other items, on his testimony that Tony and Ethel Kroledge had no involvement in the scheme to defraud State Farm. Charles claims that this finding, which was based on the pre-sentence report, was inaccurate and did not meet the required specificity for findings of fact as to the willfulness and materiality of Charles’s testimony. We disagree. Even if the district court did not explicitly address the willful and material nature of Charles’s testimony, we may uphold the enhancement as long as the district court made a finding of obstruction that encompasses all of the factual predicates for a finding of perjury. United States v. Craig, 178 F.3d 891, 901 (7th Cir. 1999) (quoting United States v. Dunnigan, 507 U.S. 87, 95 (1993)). Charles’s testimony regarding Tony and Ethel Kroledge’s involvement in the conspiracy speaks to the guilt of Charles’s co-conspirators, Tony and Ethel, and is therefore a material obstruction. See Craig, 178 F.3d at 901. Thus, to enhance Charles’s sentence for obstruction, Charles’s inaccurate testimony must have been made willfully, rather than as a result of mistake, faulty memory or confusion. See Craig, 178 F.3d at 901. An enhancement authorized by sec. 3C1.1 may employ a defendant’s perjurious testimony, but we construe the Guidelines in such a way as to avoid punishing defendants for exercising their right to testify. See Dunnigan, 507 U.S. at 96; United States v. Emerson, 128 F.3d 557, 563 (7th Cir. 1997). In this instance, we find that the court correctly met this standard by focusing on elements of Charles’s testimony that did not reflect directly on his own guilt or innocence. Charles testified that no one, including Tony, entered the house after the arson investigator left the premises. This statement seems to have been made with the intent to show that his brother Tony had no participation in his scheme. However, Gilbert Kroledge testified that he and Tony Kroledge entered Charles’s house after the arson investigator left and removed newspaper from the couch and walls. Rather than claiming that his statements at trial were mistaken or the result of confusion, he still claims that his statements do not suggest that Tony and Ethel were not involved in the case. Because his statements were made to exculpate his family, we find no error in the court’s determination that Charles’s testimony formed the basis for a finding of obstruction.