Court Opinion

ID: 9864237
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-25 12:24:53.574481+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T12:05:31.138786
License: Public Domain

ROGERS, Circuit Judge,
concurring.
I concur in the majority opinion, notwithstanding a concern that Nazzal’s abuse of Z.C. and H.M. — however terrible — was not really part of Nazzal’s efforts to conceal the conspiracy. The best way for Nazzal to conceal the conspiracy would have been to let the victims alone. Nazzal was apparently threatening to reveal the criminal acts constituting the conspiracy. Such threats are not inherent in the crime of the conspiracy, but instead are more in the nature of collateral blackmail. Such independent crimes should be prosecuted independently, or be brought under tort law. In the absence of sufficiently clear law to that effect, however, it is correct to uphold the restitution orders on plain error review.