Opinion ID: 197582
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Prior Uncounted Convictions.

Text: 34 The appellant also contests the second pillar underpinning the upward departure: the district court's reliance on the seven prior convictions that were excluded from the CHC calculation. Because the court did not rest its departure analysis on the pattern of protracted domestic violence alone, but on the combined effect of that pattern and the litany of uncounted convictions, we must address this assignment of error. 35 Section 4A1.3 specifically authorizes courts to consider prior uncounted convictions, see U.S.S.G. § 4A1.3(a), and an upward departure is appropriate if convictions that were excluded from the CHC calculation for reasons such as remoteness evince some significantly unusual penchant for serious criminality. United States v. Aymelek, 926 F.2d 64, 73 (1st Cir.1991). 36 Here, the uncounted convictions involved a 1977 assault with a dangerous weapon; a 1979 conviction for operating a motor vehicle so as to endanger; four convictions in 1980 (two separate larcenies, an episode of larceny by check, and an incident that involved breaking and entering into a motor vehicle); and a 1992 conviction for operating an unregistered, uninsured, and uninspected motor vehicle. Judge Carter's assessment that the seven convictions for the most part represented serious offenses cannot be gainsaid, and, when considered against the backdrop of the appellant's protracted history of spousal abuse, such convictions are sufficient to remove the offender from the mine-run of other offenders. Id. Under these circumstances, a departure is appropriate. See id. 37 Swimming upstream against this reality, the appellant asseverates that the age of these convictions dispels any notion that they indicate an increased likelihood of recidivism. This asseveration lacks force. To be sure, the appellant committed the uncounted offenses between 17 and 20 years ago. 6 But, when considered in conjunction with the counted offenses and the 17-year history of domestic abuse, they form discernible links in a long chain of persistent misconduct. Given this solid basis for a powerful inference of recidivism and for a finding that the string of uncounted convictions reflect a rather unusual proclivity for serious criminality, we detect no abuse of discretion in the lower court's reliance on the uncounted convictions. See United States v. Pratt, 73 F.3d 450, 453 (1st Cir.1996) (ratifying decision to depart upward based, inter alia, on outdated, uncounted convictions for serious dissimilar [mis]conduct); United States v. Tilley, 964 F.2d 66, 74-76 (1st Cir.1992) (similar); Aymelek, 926 F.2d at 73 (holding that a sentencing court properly relied on seven outdated convictions distinguished by their numerosity and dangerousness in considering an upward departure); see also Doe, 18 F.3d at 45 (holding that uncounted convictions for dissimilar misconduct, remote in time, can form the basis for an upward departure). 38