Court Opinion

ID: 9481456
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 08:19:26.947389+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:48:19.571010
License: Public Domain

ARNOLD, Circuit Judge,
concurring in part and dissenting in part.
I fully concur in the affirmance of the judgment of conviction. As to the reversal of the sentence, however, I respectfully dissent. The District Court was well within its rights not to give Ms. Charger a two-point reduction for acceptance of responsibility.
This Court’s opinion convincingly demonstrates that there are ambiguities in this record. Portions of it, read in isolation, support the Court’s decision to remand for a reconsideration of the sentencing decision by the District Court. My reading of the sentencing transcript, however, has convinced me that the reasons for the District Court’s decision not to grant a two-point reduction for acceptance of responsibility are sufficiently clear to make a remand unnecessary. The quotation from the Court’s remarks at sentencing, ante at 822, demonstrates this point to my satisfaction. When questioned by an FBI agent before trial, the defendant said nothing about the involvement of one of her passengers. But when she took the stand, she tried to put part of the blame on Mr. Sazue, saying that he pulled her face right before the car began to slide. I believe it is clear that the District Court found this trial testimony incredible. The Court said “she couldn’t be right both times.” Sentencing Tr. 24, quoted ante, at 822. It also said the involvement of another person was “an important factor and the fact that she didn’t tell it to the FBI also when he was asking her about the accident, it would have been logical to do so if it were so because it is certainly, I’d consider it quite a strong defense.” Id. at 822. The District Court’s use of the subjunctive mood shows its meaning. “[I]t would have been logical to” tell the FBI agent about the other person’s action “if it were so” (emphasis mine). The Court did not believe that it was so — did not believe that Mr. Sazue had done what Ms. Charger said. It did not believe it because it was the kind of thing that a truthful person would have said at the earliest opportunity.
At trial, the defendant attempted to avoid responsibility by telling a story materially different from her pretrial statement. The jury returned a verdict of guilty, evidently not believing her trial testimony. The District Court, as I have tried to indicate, seems not to have believed it, either. Accordingly, it was not error for the District Court to deny the two-point reduction in question. I would affirm both the conviction and the sentence.