Court Opinion

ID: 9626497
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 08:14:38.589065+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:06:28.346987
License: Public Domain

ROGERS, Circuit Judge,
concurring.
I concur in all of the majority opinion except for part Il.C.l.b, the last sentence of part II.E.2, and part II.E.3.b. These parts conclude that the district court erred below in the defendant’s favor. The Government, however, commendably conditioned its cross-appeal: if the court of appeals rejects the defendant’s arguments on appeal, the Government would forgo its cross-appeal. Because we do reject defendant’s arguments on appeal, the issues presented by the Government’s cross-appeal have been withdrawn, and we should not reach out to address them.
It is true that part II.E.3.b accepts the Government’s argument that the homeowners were victims under U.S.S.G. § 2B1.1(b)(2) as part of an analysis rejecting defendant’s challenge to the district court’s alleged reliance on U.S.S.G. § 5K2.3 (psychological harm to victims) to impose a sentence 65 months beyond the guideline range. But the Government’s § 2B1.1(b)(2) argument is not necessary to uphold the additional 65 months. We need not decide whether the district court erred in applying § 2Bl.l(b)(2), nor is it necessary for us to decide whether the word “victim” means the same thing under § 5K2.3 (dealing with departures in general) as it does in § 2Bl.l(b)(2) (dealing strictly with “basic economic offenses” such as theft and fraud). I would not reach out to decide either of these issues.
It is clear from the sentencing transcript that the district court viewed the additional 65 months as a variance justified under the § 3553(a) factors. Although the district court reasoned that a § 5K2.3 upward departure was justified, the court did not discuss adding specific amounts of time to Erpenbeck’s guidelines sentence until after *445it had begun a thorough discussion of the § 3553 factors. After stating the intention to add a total of 65 months to Erpenbeck’s sentence, the court stated, “This adds approximately 28 percent to the length of Mr. Erpenbeck’s sentence as calculated under the Guidelines, and the Court finds this to be appropriate based on the extended nature of the harm and damage caused to Mr. Erpenbeck’s scheme, by the length of time defendant continued to engage in his scheme while at the same time indulging in luxuries and an extravagant lifestyle, and by the necessity of promoting respect for the law.” Even if the added 65 months could nonetheless be considered a departure under § 5K of the Guidelines, the district court at the very least provided an alternative rationale for the same 65 months under § 3553. Any technical error in relying upon § 5K2.3 would therefore be facially harmless. See United States v. Lalonde, 509 F.3d 750, 765 (6th Cir.2007).