Court Opinion

ID: 9483029
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 09:08:12.229873+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:49:22.066366
License: Public Domain

CAMPBELL, Senior Circuit Judge
(dissenting).
I respectfully disagree that the district court- committed clear error when it found that Cloutier was part of a single conspiracy that endured into 1989. I would, therefore, affirm its ruling that the Sentencing Guidelines are applicable.
Whether a conspiracy is multiple or single is a question of fact. United States v. David, 940 F.2d 722, 732 (1st Cir.1991). This court should review the district court’s finding of a single conspiracy much as it would review the resolution of disputed facts in, say, a motion to suppress. Our cases indicate that a reviewing court will uphold a determination of whether there was one or several conspiracies so long as the record reveals sufficient facts to have enabled a reasonable fact finder to reach the result it did. Evidence bearing on the number and nature of conspiracies is frequently circumstantial. What inferences to draw is left to the fact finder so long as these are reasonable. Where more than one inference might be reasonable, a reviewing court should uphold the fact finder’s inference unless no reasonable fact finder could draw such an inference. Here, I submit, the facts easily sustain an inference of a single conspiracy even though an alternative inference of two conspiracies is also possible.
Among the facts pointing towards a continuation of the original conspiracy into 1987, 1988 and early 1989 are the following: In 1987, 1988 and early 1989, Cloutier was still selling marijuana with Michael Brady, with whom he had worked continuously, with one hiatus, since 1979. Cloutier also maintained relations with his original money-laundering partner, McCann, until 1988 — he and McCann had been continuously associated from the mid-1970’s. In 1988 and thereafter, Cloutier was not only buying and selling small quantities of low quality marijuana, but he and Brady, in 1989, bought high quality sensemilla marijuana in pound quantities and sold it for $160— $200 an ounce. While Cloutier had turned more to selling cocaine in 1981 through mid-1987, the conspiracy had begun in the 1970’s with the sale of' locally-purchased marijuana; and Cloutier and his associates continued to sell marijuana — some of it locally bought — even when their chief commodity was Florida-purchased cocaine. After ceasing to sell cocaine in mid-1987, Cloutier continued to sell marijuana — the substance he had initially peddled and had never stopped selling. The locus of. the selling activities was, at all times, Lowell and Southern New Hampshire. As the government states in its brief:
Their volume of business, wealth, number of co-conspirators, and sale of other drugs ebbed and flowed over the following decade. But in 1988-89, Cloutier and Brady were still together, selling marijuana for profit in the area of Lowell and southern New Hampshire. Cloutier may have stopped selling cocaine in 1986, but he continued with Brady in the original goal of the Conspiracy — marijuana sales.
A key factor in finding whether or not there is a single conspiracy is whether the evidence sufficiently shows that the conspirators “directed their efforts towards the accomplishment of a common goal or overall plan.” United States v. Drougas, 748 F.2d 8, 17 (1st Cir.1984). See United States v. Elam, 678 F.2d 1234, 1246 (5th Cir.1982) (“Common purpose”). The judge here could reasonably find that the conspiracy’s goal was, at all times, the sale of illegal drugs in Cloutier’s home area in New England — chiefly marijuana and cocaine. Even in 1988, certain of the same people remained — Cloutier himself and Brady, with McCann to launder the money. To be sure, in the final years the venture turned somewhat sour; Cloutier may have lost his grip; most co-conspirators may have left. But it was open to the fact finder to decide whether the weakening of Cloutier’s drug business, and the cessation of selling cocaine,- constituted the end of the original conspiracy and the beginning *32of another. While there are undoubtedly points to be made in favor of the two conspiracy theory, the goal of the “second” conspiracy remained little different from the first. I cannot see the “clear error” in Judge Mazzone’s inference that Cloutier’s activities in late 1987 and 1988 were simply a continuation of the old conspiratorial agreement. Indeed, there is little in the court’s opinion to explain why it believes the lower court’s alleged error was so “clear.” My colleagues’ opinion is written in terms of simple disagreement; it does not point out anything seriously garbled in the lower court’s analysis. To be sure, the argument for two conspiracies is plausible enough. But the question is not one over which an appellate court exercises de novo review; and there is no case law that I can discern rendering Judge Mazzone’s alternative view fatally flawed. The cases this court purports to rely upon are all factually quite different. David, indeed, strongly emphasizes the fact-bound nature of a decision like this, the very point my colleagues ignore. As I see nothing very unreasonable about Judge Mazzone’s assessment of this record, I think we should let stand his finding of a single conspiracy.
This leads to the question of the CCE. Cloutier was not overseeing five or more persons by late 1987 and 1988. However, the government relies on United States v. Sinito, 723 F.2d 1250,1261 (6th Cir.1983), a Sixth Circuit case which reiterates the rulings in cases from the Second and Fifth Circuits, to the effect that the five individuals need not all act together at the same time. It is clear that Cloutier acted with many more than five people over the life of the entire enterprise. He could be found to have been a supervisor or organizer for most of the time — perhaps for all of the time — and, especially assuming the conspiracy ran through 1989, the continuing criminal enterprise could be found to have continued up till then also. He clearly received substantial income. Hence, I believe the CCE, as well as conspiracy, was permissibly found by Judge Mazzone to have overlapped the adoption of the 1987 guidelines.
I would, therefore, hold that the district judge, when sentencing Cloutier, did not err in ruling that the Sentencing Guidelines were controlling.