Opinion ID: 202903
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The Failed Plea Agreement and Trial

Text: On July 19, 2004, Cadieux entered into a plea agreement under Fed.R.Crim.P. 11(c)(1)(c). The agreement specified a base offense level 14 and criminal history category II, which resulted in an initial guidelines range of 12-18 months. At the change-of-plea hearing on September 2, 2004, probation informed the court that Cadieux was subject to a sentencing enhancement as an armed career criminal because Cadieux had three prior violent felony convictions. See 18 U.S.C. § 924(e)(1). Among other things, he argued that his 1989 conviction for indecent assault and battery on a minor did not qualify as a third strike because the 1989 statute captured consensual sexual touching that could not be deemed violent within the meaning of the ACCA. The presentence report, to which Cadieux did not object, stated that Cadieux was born on September 20, 1959. In a well-reasoned opinion, the court below found that a comparison between the [1989] indictment and the elements of the statute as illuminated by applicable case law established that Cadieux, as an adult, had committed an indecent sexual touching of a child which, under our precedent, was a violent felony under the ACCA. See United States v. Cadieux, 350 F.Supp.2d 275, 285 (D.Me.2004). [3] The court permitted Cadieux to withdraw his plea, and the case went to trial. At trial, over Cadieux's objection, the district court allowed the government to introduce a recording of Jolene's statements to the 911 dispatcher. Jolene did not testify. The court concluded that the recording was admissible either as a business or public record; that the statements themselves, though hearsay, could be introduced either as excited utterances or present sense impressions; and that the statements were nontestimonial and therefore exempt from Confrontation Clause challenge. After a two-day trial, Cadieux was convicted on one count of being a felon-in-possession of a firearm. The court subsequently imposed a sentence of 188 months incarceration, the minimum term applicable under the ACCA. See 18 U.S.C. § 924(e). This appeal followed.