Court Opinion

ID: 9580659
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 22:07:17.794413+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T13:36:25.787380
License: Public Domain

SHEPHERD, Circuit Judge,
concurring in part and dissenting in part.
I write separately to respectfully dissent from the court’s decision in Part II.D. and disagree with its analysis of the Mandatory Victims Restitution Act. The Government argues that the Bauers and Rosedale Dodge were “directly and proximately harmed as a result” of Farish’s commission of an offense, 18 U.S.C. § S663A(a)(2), not just his conduct in the course of a scheme, conspiracy or pattern of criminal activity. As such, the court’s decision wrongly centers on the distinction between aiding and abetting and conspiracy, rather than the evidence of causation.
The evidence showed that Stephen Farish hired Che Romero to start a fire at 117 Diamond Lake Road, but that Romero mistakenly targeted the Bauer’s home. Ante at 818. After Farish discovered that the wrong place had been burned, he sent Romero to burn Metzger’s home on Diamond Lake Road. As payment for his efforts, Farish arranged for Romero to steal an automobile from Rosedale Dodge. Id. Romero and Farish were jointly indicted with, “each aiding and abetting the other,” “maliciously damaging] and destroying], attempting] to maliciously damage and destroy, and conspiring] to maliciously damage and destroy, by means of fire” the Metzger home. I agree with the court’s conclusion that, if the jury had only convicted Farish of conspiracy to commit arson, then the district court’s entire restitution order was appropriate. Ante at 826.
Assuming, however, that the jury’s verdict was solely for aiding and abetting the Metzger fire, the question is whether Farish’s conduct in maliciously damaging and destroying the home, or attempting to maliciously damage and destroy the home, was a direct and proximate cause of the damage to the Bauers and Rosedale Dodge. “The main inquiry for causation in restitution cases [is] whether there was an intervening cause, and, if so, whether this intervening cause was directly related to the offense conduct.” United States v. Hackett, 311 F.3d 989, 992 (9th Cir.2002) (quoting United States v. Meksian, 170 F.3d 1260, 1263 (9th Cir.1999)). “The causal chain may not extend so far, in terms of the facts or the time span, as to become unreasonable.” Id. at 993 (quoting United States v. Gamma Tech Indus., Inc., 265 F.3d 917, 928 (9th Cir.2001)).
Applying these principles to the present case, there is abundant evidence that Far*829ish’s conduct was a direct and proximate cause of the damage to the Bauers and Rosedale Dodge. Farish concocted the plan to burn the Metzger home and arranged for Romero to complete the crime. The mistaken burning of a neighbor’s property was a natural and foreseeable consequence of Farish’s conduct; there was no other cause of the damage except, perhaps, Farish’s poor instructions or Romero’s poor understanding of those instructions. The bungled execution of an intentional crime is not an intervening cause. The theft of the automobile from Rosedale Dodge was also a direct consequence of the crime — it was Farish’s way of paying off the principal offender. Damage to both victims was directly related to Farish’s conduct, and was in no way an unreasonable extension of the causal chain.
Even if he was “merely” an aider and abettor, Farish may be punished to the same extent as Romero. 18 U.S.C. § 2(a). Restitution under the MVRA is a form of punishment. United States v. Williams, 128 F.3d 1239, 1241 (8th Cir.1997). Courts have not hesitated to make an aider and abettor pay restitution to victims who were most directly harmed by the conduct of a principal offender. E.g., Hackett, 311 F.3d at 990-91, 993 (aider and abettor of the manufacture of methamphetamine where principal offender accidentally set fire to a house); Williams, 128 F.3d at 1240 (aider and abettor to fraud related to selling cloned cell phones where buyers used the phones, causing damage to cellular companies). It is enough that the defendant’s conduct created the circumstances under which the damage occurred. Hackett, 311 F.3d at 993; see United States v. Reichow, 416 F.3d 802, 804-05 (8th Cir.2005) (upholding award of restitution for damage to sheriffs property and deputy’s injuries during defendant’s apprehension). Farish’s conduct easily meets this standard.
Consequently, I would affirm the district court’s award of restitution. I concur in this court’s decision to affirm in all other respects.