Court Opinion

ID: 9564148
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 18:55:11.055078+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:18:14.978638
License: Public Domain

IKUTA, Circuit Judge,
concurring in part and dissenting in part:
I agree with the majority that Wak-nine’s sentence should be vacated and the case should be remanded for resentencing. I further concur in the majority’s decision not to reassign this case to a different judge on remand. On the restitution issue, I agree with the majority that the district court clearly erred in its factual analysis of the loan amounts submitted as part of Hadad’s restitution claim, which resulted in the district court’s order that Waknine pay $371,000 in restitution to Ha-dad. I agree with the majority that Ha-dad’s restitution award should therefore be vacated. However, I must respectfully dissent from the remainder of the majority’s restitution analysis in Section III of its opinion. Most critically, I cannot agree that “the district court erred by relying exclusively on the one-page loss summaries provided by the victims and in not requiring more detailed explanations of the losses each victim suffered.” Maj. op. at 557. There is no support for this proposition, either in the statutory framework that governs restitution or in our case law, and there is no basis for vacating the district court’s factual finding in this case.
“A restitution order is reviewed for an abuse of discretion, provided that it is within the bounds of the statutory framework. Factual findings supporting an order of restitution are reviewed for clear error. The legality of an order of restitution is reviewed de novo.” United States v. Marks, 530 F.3d 799, 811 (9th Cir.2008) (internal quotation marks omitted). “A finding is ‘clearly erroneous’ when although there is evidence to support it, the reviewing court on the entire evidence is left with the definite and firm conviction that a mistake has been committed.” United States v. United States Gypsum Co., 333 U.S. 364, 395, 68 S.Ct. 525, 92 L.Ed. 746 (1948); see also United States v. Crook, 9 F.3d 1422, 1427 (9th Cir.1993). Under this deferential standard, “this court will not reverse if the district court’s findings are plausible in light of the record viewed in its entirety ... even if it is *561convinced it would have found differently.” Katie A., ex rel. Ludin v. Los Angeles County, 481 F.3d 1150, 1155 (9th Cir.2007) (alteration in original) (internal quotation marks omitted).
The Mandatory Victims Restitution Act (“MVRA”), sets forth procedures for issuing restitution orders in 18 U.S.C. § 3664. See United States v. Moreland, 509 F.3d 1201, 1222-23 (9th Cir.2007). Among other things, the MVRA directs the court to order the probation officer to prepare a report including “information sufficient for the court to exercise its discretion in fashioning a restitution order.” 18 U.S.C. § 3664(a). In collecting this information, the probation officer must “provide notice to all identified victims of ... the opportunity of the victim to file with the probation officer a separate affidavit relating to the amount of the victim’s losses subject to restitution.” 18 U.S.C. § 3664(d)(2)(A)(vi). Section 3664(d)(2)(B) further directs the probation officer to “provide the victim with an affidavit form to submit pursuant to subparagraph (A)(vi).”
The structure of Section 3664 makes clear that the court may use the completed victim affidavit in determining a victim’s losses. This is consistent with our precedents, which allow courts to consider and weigh the evidentiary value of witness affidavits, signed under penalty of perjury. See, e.g., Fed.R.Civ.P. 56(e)(1) (first-party affidavits can serve as competent evidence to support or oppose a summary judgment motion); Williams v. Boeing Co., 517 F.3d 1120, 1128 (9th Cir.2008) (“On a summary judgment motion challenging standing a plaintiff may not rest on mere allegations, but must set forth by affidavit or other evidence specific facts that demonstrate standing.” (internal quotation marks omitted)). Indeed, the Fifth Circuit, addressing this issue against the backdrop of the pre-MVRA version of § 3664, held that victims’ affidavits are a sufficient factual basis upon which to rest a restitution decision. See United States v. Rochester, 898 F.2d 971, 982 (5th Cir.1990) (holding that an affidavit establishing the victim’s loss was “sufficient to satisfy the ... requirement for a factual basis”).
Moreover, the Sentencing Guidelines contemplate that the district court will rely on witness affidavits in order to resolve factual disputes that arise as part of sentencing proceedings. Section 6A1.3(a) states:
When any factor important to the sentencing determination is reasonably in dispute, the parties shall be given an adequate opportunity to present information to the court regarding that factor. In resolving any dispute concerning a factor important to the sentencing determination, the court may consider relevant information without regard to its admissibility under the rules of evidence applicable at trial, provided that the information has sufficient indicia of reliability to support its probable accuracy.
The commentary notes to § 6A1.3 clarify that “[wjritten statements of counsel or affidavits of witnesses may be adequate under many circumstances.” See also United States v. Ibanez, 924 F.2d 427, 430 (2d Cir.1991) (noting that under the commentary to section 6A1.3, witness affidavits may be sufficient to resolve factual disputes). “Any dispute as to the proper amount or type of restitution shall be resolved by the court by the preponderance of the evidence.” 18 U.S.C. § 3664(e).
There is nothing in this framework that requires victims to provide a detailed itemization of their losses. There is also nothing in the governing law that requires victims to submit corroborating evidence of their claims. To the contrary, as a general rule we have expressly rejected *562the argument that § 6A1.3 “impose[s] any ‘corroboration’ requirement” on parties submitting evidence to resolve factual disputes at sentencing. United States v. Alfonso, 48 F.3d 1536, 1546 (9th Cir.1995). In short, because the MVRA, the Guidelines, and our case law permit a district court to rely on a victim’s affidavit, and because the governing law creates no detailed itemization or corroboration requirement, the district court’s reliance on the victims’ affidavits in fashioning its restitution order was clearly “within the bounds of the statutory framework.” Marks, 530 F.3d at 811 (internal quotation marks omitted).
Nor is there any basis for holding that the district court’s restitution order was clearly erroneous. Here, both Hadad and Keuylian submitted form affidavits which they signed under penalty of perjury. Waknine did not submit any evidence contradicting the restitution amounts he now challenges on appeal, but merely made unsupported arguments to the district court. The district court made a factual finding as to the amount of restitution based on these victim affidavits. Because the relevant portions of the victim affidavits are uncontradicted evidence of loss, the district court’s determination was based on a preponderance of the evidence. Moreover, the majority has not identified any evidence in the record that would allow it to conclude that the district court erred in calculating the amount of the restitution order, for example, by failing to consider contrary evidence or miscalculating the amount of loss.1
Instead, the majority seems to harbor doubts about the victims’ honesty and care in preparing the affidavits. See maj. op. at 557-58 (holding that the victim affidavits were insufficient because they were not adequately detailed, were uncorroborated, and could have included non-reimbursable costs). Because of these suspicions, the majority declares that the affidavits are unreliable, and thus that the district court erred in using them to formulate the restitution order. The majority considers the absence of contrary evidence in the record to be inconsequential, because “[i]t is unreasonable to expect a defendant to be able to counter evidence provided by the victim concerning attorneys’ fees.” Maj. op. at 558. But in fact, the MVRA and Guidelines address this very concern by providing procedural mechanisms for developing disputed facts. Waknine could have tested the victims’ credibility and the reliability of their claims of loss by requesting an evidentiary hearing. See 18 U.S.C. § 3664(d)(4) (allowing the district court to receive additional documentation or hear testimony to resolve factual issues arising as part of the restitution analysis); United States v. Gordon, 393 F.3d 1044, 1049-50 (9th Cir.2004) (district court conducted an evidentiary hearing to resolve disputed restitution issues); see also U.S.S.G. § 6A1.3 cmt. (evidentiary hearings may be held to resolve disputed factual issues at sentencing). Indeed, when the evidentiary basis of a district court’s sentencing decision is of questionable reliability, it may be error for a district court to decline a defendant’s request for an evi-dentiary hearing. See United States v. Jimenez Martinez, 83 F.3d 488, 494-95 (1st Cir.1996).
But here, Waknine did not request an evidentiary hearing on the reliability of the affidavits submitted by Hadad and Keuyli-an. Because the defendants could have developed evidence that would contradict *563the victim affidavits and failed to do so, it is difficult to discern how the majority could arrive at a “definite and firm conviction that a mistake has been committed.” United States Gypsum Co., 333 U.S. at 395, 68 S.Ct. 525. Had the majority been reviewing the victim affidavits in the first instance, it might well have reached a different result than the district court and rejected the affidavits as insufficiently credible. Of course, that is not an appropriate basis for reversing the district court’s decision in this context. See Katie A., 481 F.3d at 1155.
In reaching its conclusion, the majority principally relies on United States v. Garcia-Sanchez, 189 F.3d 1143 (9th Cir.1999). This case does not support the majority’s position. Although Garcia-Sanchez held that “in establishing the facts ... underlying a sentence, the district court[must] utilize only evidence that possesses sufficient indicia of reliability to support its probable accuracy,” id. at 1148 (internal quotation marks omitted), we based this holding on § 6A1.3(a) of the Sentencing Guidelines. As noted above, the commentary notes to § 6A1.3 specify that written affidavits “may be adequate under many circumstances.” Thus, Garcia-Sanchez does not stand for the proposition that affidavits must meet some heightened standard of specificity in order to have “sufficient indicia of reliability” for purposes of sentencing and restitution proceedings.
Moreover, the facts of Garcia-Sanchez are considerably different from those in the present ease. Garcia-Sanchez concerned a district court’s formulation of a sentence for a defendant convicted of conspiracy to sell cocaine, not the formulation of a restitution order. We determined that, for purposes of sentencing, “[t]he district court’s estimate of the conspiracy’s weekly sales was not based on reliable evidence” because it was “supported only by unexplained conclusions drawn from unrevealed out-of-court statements.” Garcia-Sanchez, 189 F.3d at 1148. Here, in contrast, the district court’s restitution decision was supported by sworn affidavits from persons who had first-hand knowledge of the loss, i.e., the victims.
Nor does United States v. Brock-Davis, 504 F.3d 991 (9th Cir.2007), support the majority’s position. In Brock-Davis, we were presented with the question whether factual discrepancies in the record required us to vacate the district court’s restitution order. Id. at 1001-02. We declined to do so, noting that “although the government must provide the district court with more than just ... general invoices ... ostensibly identifying the amount of their losses, the government’s burden of proof has been met,” because the victim “made an overall statement of his final request’s accuracy that Brock-Davis fails to discredit.” Id. at 1002 (ellipses in original) (internal citation and quotation marks omitted). Brock-Davis is thus inapposite here, because the government submitted more than just “general invoices.” Rather, the government submitted affidavits from the victims, which included declarations under penalty of perjury that the contents of the affidavits were true and correct. Moreover, as in Brock-Davis, Waknine did not introduce any evidence to discredit the accuracy of the final request for restitution submitted by the victim. Id. Thus, to the extent that Brock-Davis does apply in the present context, it weighs in favor of a conclusion that the district court’s restitution decision should be partly upheld.
In sum, the majority creates a new and more onerous requirement for victim affidavits than is required by the MVRA, the Guidelines, or our case law. The rule promises to create new procedural hurdles *564for victims seeking restitution, a result the MVRA was designed in large part to avert. See Moreland, 509 F.3d at 1222-23. Given that the governing law clearly contemplates that affidavits may be competent evidence to resolve factual disputes at sentencing, I see no basis for holding that the district court abused its discretion in relying on the victims’ affidavits to formulate a restitution order in this case. Therefore, I respectfully dissent in part from Section III of the majority opinion.

. For purposes of this analysis, I set aside the subcomponent of Hadad’s affidavit that dealt with the amounts he was loaned and forced to repay. As I note above, I agree with the majority that the district court's analysis of this question was clearly erroneous.