Opinion ID: 63
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Abuse of Discretion Standard

Text: Brown also contends that the District Court improperly rejected the plea agreement by distributing the letter to AUSA Daniel with the attached statement of reasons to counsel on June 25, 2003. On this point we first observe that the record by no means is clear that the Court ever rejected the plea agreement. The reality may be that Brown simply abandoned the agreement when he became aware of the Court's view of it. However, assuming that the letter and statement of reasons constituted a rejection of the plea agreement, we review the District Court's rejection of Brown's plea agreement for an abuse of discretion. See United States v. Hecht, 638 F.2d 651, 658 (3d Cir.1981) (Weis, J., dissenting) (citing Santobello v. New York, 404 U.S. 257, 262, 92 S.Ct. 495, 498, 30 L.Ed.2d 427 (1971)); see also Government of the Virgin Islands v. Walker, 261 F.3d 370, 375 (3d Cir.2001) (A sentencing court can, of course, reject the results of a plea negotiation if it concludes that the resulting agreement is not in the best interest of justice.). On the question of whether the District Court rejected the plea agreement it is clear that, on its face, Judge Rambo's June 25 letter and her accompanying statement of reasons would lead most reasonable readers to believe that the rejection of Brown's plea agreement was a foregone conclusion. By the next day, however, Judge Rambo clearly indicated a willingness to consider the plea agreement at the chambers conference. In this regard the record indicates that when Judge Rambo originally read that the plea agreement suggested that Brown's timely acceptance of responsibility had permitted the Court to allocate its resources efficiently, she reacted negatively, but by the next day she had softened her views. Yet we need not determine if Judge Rambo actually rejected the plea agreement for even if we construe the statement of reasons as a formal rejection, she did not abuse her discretion in rejecting the agreement. Brown argues that Judge Rambo in issuing her statement of reasons abused her discretion because she displayed a predisposition to find Brown guilty and impose a substantial penalty, and because she improperly based her decision to reject the plea agreement on the circumstance that she and her staff had spent substantial time and effort preparing for Brown's trial. [28] We disagree. The grand jury charged Brown with an array of felonies which allegedly resulted in very serious financial harm to the Rite Aid Corporation and its shareholders, as well as obstruction of justice and witness tampering. The indictment charged Brown and Grass equally, and alleged they both were more culpable than Bergonzi and Sorkin. Yet the government in Judge Rambo's view inexplicably offered Brown a significantly more lenient plea agreement than it did Grass. Although Judge Rambo spoke harshly in describing why she felt Brown's plea agreement did not serve the interests of justice, if she actually rejected the plea agreement she did not abuse her discretion by so doing. Brown draws our attention to Judge Rambo's statement that she found particularly nauseating the portion of the plea agreement indicating that the government would move for a reduction in Brown's offense level because Brown's timely acceptance of responsibility had allowed the government and the District Court to allocate their resources efficiently. Judge Rambo noted that Brown's decision to enter a plea agreement on almost the eve of trial had by no means prevented the Court and its staff from expending considerable effort preparing for trial. Brown reads these statements to mean that Judge Rambo rejected the plea agreement because of the time the Court had spent on trial preparation. Though we can understand why a district court would be frustrated if, after it expended great efforts to prepare for a trial, the parties in effect settled the case, as the court might wonder why they could not have reached their agreement earlier, we agree that ordinarily it would be improper for a court to reject a plea agreement solely because of its annoyance attributable to the parties' delay in reaching an agreement. [29] The record demonstrates, however, that Judge Rambo's comments regarding timing referred specifically to the proposed Sentencing Guidelines 3-level reduction for Brown's timely acceptance of responsibility, and not to the acceptability of the plea agreement generally. Judge Rambo's hostility to this proposed reduction, though expressed harshly, was certainly understandable given the circumstances of the case of which she was well aware. In fact, we, too, cannot understand how the parties seriously can have recited in the plea agreement that Brown's acceptance of responsibility was timely. After considering all of Brown's arguments, we find no abuse of discretion in the District Court's reaction to Brown's plea agreement.