Court Opinion

ID: 9488744
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 12:54:46.161496+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:51:16.347908
License: Public Domain

*1496FERNANDEZ, J.,
concurring and dissenting:
I concur in all but Part I of the majority opinion.1 As to that part, I cannot agree.
As I see it, the district court does have the authority to order the repayment of all fees as a condition of probation. The required repayment will, at the very least, “promote respect for the law” and “reflect the seriousness of the offense.” See 18 U.S.C. § 3558(a)(2)(A).
A court’s telling a criminal that there are costs and expenses that one incurs when one commits crimes is quite connected to the seriousness of the offense itself. Due to illness or leniency, Lorenzini was given the advantage of probation. The knowledge that his frauds will cause him to be out of pocket for the costs of defending himself and that he cannot avoid the costs should help bring home to him the seriousness of what he did.
Moreover, a probation term of this kind does help promote respect for the law because a defendant will not get away with defrauding others of their money for his own gain, while at the same time having his affordable defense fees paid by the government. It does so in still another way. As the majority opinion recognizes, the district court can order a defendant to repay the defense fees, if he can afford to do so. That becomes a legal obligation of his. A failure to fulfill his legal obligations is exactly what caused Lorenzini to fall into the toils of the criminal law in the first place, and the defense fees are part of the consequences of that failure. Flouting his obligation to repay those fees would show disrespect for the law and for the legal process. Indeed, the majority suggests that contempt proceedings might even be available to enforce the reimbursement order. Contempt is based upon disrespect, and defendants like Lorenzini need to learn to respect the rights of others. That is a prime (maybe the most important) part of what people like Lorenzini are supposed to learn while on probation.
Perhaps Lorenzini would prefer to spend his money other ways, despite his repayment obligation, or perhaps he would repay anyway. But the shaping of conditions of probation is essentially a task for the district court, and that is where we should leave it. See United States v. Juvenile #1 (LWQ), 38 F.3d 470, 473 (9th Cir.1994). Many of the probation conditions set forth in the Guidelines focus on requiring defendants to fulfill their legal obligations. See, e.g., § 5B1.4(a)(4) (support dependents and meet family responsibilities); § 5B1.4(b)(15) (pay restitution); § 5B1.4(b)(16) (pay fines); § 5B1.4(b)(17) (do not incur new debts unless paying restitution, etc., on schedule). For each of these obligations, other methods of enforcement are available. However, they are useful and appropriate probation terms. So, too, is a term that requires repayment of an obligation for fees.
Therefore, while I concur in the remainder of the majority opinion, I dissent from Part I.

. I concur in Part II because I take it that the majority does not intend to say that a district court must order the whole of the fees paid at once or not order payment at all. I do not read the emphasis on the words "current” and "present” to mean that the district court must extract the fees immediately and with draconian rigidity or not assess them.