Opinion ID: 779372
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Tocco's Cross-Appeal

Text: 43 In his cross-appeal, Tocco contends that the government should not have been able to argue at resentencing for either an aggravating role enhancement to the Versaci Gambling Operation offense level or that the Edgewater Hotel activities, the Bowman murder conspiracy, the Hobbs Act conspiracy, and the acts of extortion constituted underlying racketeering activity for the purpose of calculating Tocco's Count 1 RICO conspiracy base offense level. In addition, Tocco contends that the district court should have departed downwards from his sentencing range, as it did at the first sentencing, based on Tocco's and his wife's health. Both of these arguments are based on Tocco's view that this court's previous remand to the district court was limited. We agree with Tocco that this court's previous remand was limited. However, we do not agree that our remand limited the district court's ability to hear the government's arguments regarding Tocco's Count 1 RICO conspiracy underlying racketeering activity or to refuse to downward depart from the sentencing on the basis of Tocco's and his wife's health. 44 We have explained that [l]imited remands explicitly outline the issues to be addressed by the district court and create a narrow framework within which the district court must operate.... General remands, in contrast, give district courts authority to address all matters as long as remaining consistent with the remand. United States v. Campbell, 168 F.3d 263, 265 (6th Cir.1999). In our first opinion, we explicitly instructed the district court in a number of ways. For instance, we instructed the court to impose a three-level aggravating role enhancement to Tocco's Count 6 Hobbs Act conspiracy offense level. However, the limitations we imposed on the district court on remand did not involve either the court's assessment of underlying racketeering activity for the purpose of calculating Tocco's Count 1 RICO conspiracy base offense level or the court's assessment of appropriate bases for downward departure. 45 In regard to the Count 1 RICO conspiracy underlying racketeering activity assessment, we stated that: [W]e instruct the district court to determine which underlying offenses may properly be attributable to Tocco for purposes of sentencing. Tocco, 200 F.3d at 430-31. We explicitly noted that the government argued on appeal that the Edgewater Hotel activities, the Bowman murder conspiracy, the Hobbs Act conspiracy, and the some of the acts of extortion constituted underlying racketeering activity for the purpose of calculating Tocco's Count 1 conspiracy base offense level. Id. at 429. Therefore, the government's raising of those offenses at resentencing and its arguing for the four-level enhancement to the Versaci Gambling Operation offense level did not violate this court's mandate. 46 We also discussed the district court's downward departure from the sentencing range at length, and we instructed the court to reconsider its decision to depart from the guideline range once that range has been redetermined. Id. at 432. We did not instruct the district court not to depart downward on the basis of Tocco's and his wife's health, but we strongly discouraged such departures. Thus, the district court's refusal to downward depart at resentencing on the basis of Tocco's and his wife's health was not outside the scope of our limited remand. Furthermore, the district court stated at resentencing that: 47 In considering again the departure downward based on the defendant's health needs, the court concludes in May 2000 that those health needs are not so extraordinary or requiring that such a departure would now be appropriate.. . . The court concludes from the evidence at these more recent hearings that no downward departure based upon Mr. Tocco's health would be appropriate.. . . Similarly, the court's two-level departure downward based upon the mental and physical health problems of the defendant's spouse has been reconsidered. Based upon the witness called by the defendant to give testimony at the provisional hearings this year ... and particularly the testimony elicited by the government's cross-examination, the court concludes that a downward departure based upon Mrs. Tocco's health would be inappropriate at this time. 48 J.A. at 264-65. Although the court does not state explicitly that it understands that it has the discretion to depart downward, it is clear from the above statement that the district court deemed a downward departure on the basis of Tocco's and his wife's health unwarranted. We have held that where the district court finds, based on the facts in the record, that a requested downward departure is unwarranted, it implicitly recognizes its discretion to depart downward, and, therefore, we cannot review such a failure to depart downward on appeal. See United States v. Jones, 102 F.3d 804, 809 (6th Cir.1996); see also United States v. Abdullah, 162 F.3d 897, 905 (6th Cir.1998) (holding that district court's decision was unreviewable where district court entertained argument and clearly expressed recognition of his discretion to depart).