Court Opinion

ID: 9493014
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 14:55:35.377073+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:55:35.920227
License: Public Domain

BATCHELDER, Circuit Judge, concurring.
I concur in the majority’s disposition of this case. I write separately to highlight some facts material to and necessary for an understanding of both the charges against the defendant and the § 2A2.2 sentencing issue that did not find their way into the majority opinion.
I
On January 12, 1999, substitute letter carrier James Wacker arrived at 888 E. 139th Street, the Collinwood home of Jannie L. Shumpert Hood. Hood is a forty-eight-year-old African-American woman with a history of mental illness. Due to mail theft problems, Hood had installed a lock on her mailbox. A diagram on the mailbox instructed postal workers how Hood wished her mail to be delivered.
According to Wacker, as he was preparing to deliver Hood’s mail, Hood exited her house and began yelling that he was putting the mail in the wrong place. Hood snatched the mail from him and demanded to know his name. At some point during the encounter, Wacker testified, Hood shoved him. Wacker testified that he was frightened and nervous, and he therefore did not tell Ms. Hood his true name. Hood threatened to call the post office, prompting Wacker to give his correct name.
*665Hood’s rendition of the events differs considerably. According to Hood, she came out of the house and Wacker handed her the mail. She inquired if Wacker would be her regular letter carrier and, receiving a negative response, asked his name. Wacker gave a false name. Sensing the deception, Hood said, “Oh, you are lying,” and ordered Wacker off her porch. As he left, Wacker stated his true name. Hood denies ever having shoved Wacker.
After this incident, Wacker radioed his supervisor and reported that he had been assaulted. The Post Office dispatched two postal inspectors, Stephen Bolz and Jean Swinson, to investigate.
According to the inspectors, they first found James Wacker and obtained his account of his encounter with Hood. They then went to Hood’s house, where, upon arrival, they knocked on the door and rang the doorbell. After some delay, Hood appeared at a window. The inspectors identified themselves. After further delay, Hood opened the door, rushed out, and held a steak knife six to twelve inches away from Swinson’s face. Hood appeared to be very angry and said, “I didn’t call you. Get off my porch.” The inspectors backed off the porch.
Once he was off the porch, Bolz, for the first time in a thirteen-year career in law enforcement, drew his service revolver. Bolz would later testify that this “was a defensive reaction to what I felt was a dangerous situation.” Hood saw the weapon and began to yell, “He’s got a gun. He’s going to shoot me.” The inspectors retreated to their vehicle and drove back to the post office.
Hood’s account of this episode, once again, differs significantly. Hood testified that after the inspectors had rung the doorbell, she went to the window and tapped on it. In response, Swinson “stuck her head around,” allowing Hood to see her. Hood proceeded to the door while still holding a knife that she had been using to prepare breakfast. She opened the door and, for the first time, Swinson displayed her credentials. The inspectors said nothing, however. Because they remained silent, Hood, after several moments, told them to get off her porch. The inspectors went down the steps, and Bolz pulled back his coat, revealing his gun. The gun looked like it was pointing at Hood. Hood summoned her nephew1 LeRoy, but he did not arrive before the inspectors had retreated to their van and driven away. Hood testified that she never stepped out onto the porch, and that she did not threaten the inspectors with the knife.
By all accounts, Swinson and Bolz did not radio for backup or request assistance from the police. Hood, by contrast, called the post office to office to register a complaint against the person who had called the postal inspectors on her. Hood indicated that “They were coming to murder me.” Later that afternoon, Hood went to the post office to complain in person. The following day, January 13, 1999, Hood was arrested.
Hood was charged with two counts of forcibly assaulting, resisting, opposing, impeding, intimidating, or interfering with a federal official engaged in the performance of his duties, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 111. A jury acquitted Hood of the count with respect to letter carrier Wacker, thus indicating that they had at least a reasonable doubt about Wacker’s version of the event. The jury convicted Hood of the count with respect to Bolz and Swinson, indicating that they credited the inspectors’ testimony over that of Hood.
II
Hood was properly sentenced pursuant to the aggravated assault offense charac*666teristic, U.S.S.G. § 2A2.2, only if she acted “with intent to do bodily harm (i.e. not merely to frighten).” U.S. Sentencing Guidelines Manual § 2A2.2 comment, app. n. 1. I cannot agree with the majority that there is an “absolute paucity” of evidence that Hood acted in such a fashion. The credited testimony in this case is that Hood barreled through her front door and held a knife approximately one foot away from inspector Swinson’s face. This is a non-trivial piece of evidence.
Viewed in isolation, however, this evidence is equivocal. Hood may have rushed through the door with a knife in her outstretched hand intending to injure the inspectors, or she may have wanted merely to frighten them off her porch. The remaining evidence of record does little to clarify the ambiguity and, indeed, may support the theory that Hood acted with intent to frighten. The fact that Bolz and Swinson did not request assistance immediately after the encounter, for example, might suggest that the inspectors themselves did not perceive Hood as a serious threat to their physical safety. Similarly, Hood’s attempt to register a complaint against the inspectors seems inconsistent with an intent to harm them. Taken as a whole, the record before this court does not contain evidence sufficient to support the conclusion that Hood acted with intent to injure the inspectors. I therefore agree with the majority that the case should be remanded for resentencing pursuant to the minor assault characteristic, U.S.S.G. § 2A2.3.

. According to Inspectors Bolz and Swinson, Ms. Hood was yelling for someone named "Danny,” and shouting that the inspectors were going to shoot her. Ms. Hood, however, testified that she called for her nephew, "Le-Roy, " saying merely, "LeRoy, come here.”