Court Opinion

ID: 9486566
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 11:53:14.902877+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:51:48.493911
License: Public Domain

NATHANIEL R. JONES, Circuit Judge,
concurring in part and dissenting in part.
I concur in the majority opinion except with respect to Section III-B, in which the majority upholds the two-level “obstruction of justice” enhancement that was given to Arturo Garcia. I believe that the government has not met its burden of showing that he made a false statement to a presentence official that was willful and material.
I
Arturo Garcia is a Spanish-speaking migrant farm worker who was educated in Mexico through only the sixth grade. In 1992, while on pretrial release in this ease, he tested positive for cocaine three times, on March 11, March 24, and June 9. He appeared before a federal judge in the Western District of Michigan on July 15, and on July 16 the judge issued an Order of Detention revoking Garcia’s bond for “knowingly having used cocaine which is a violation of the condition of bond that prohibits usage of a controlled substance.” J.A. at 574.
Two months later, a sentencing officer interviewed Garcia. Since the officer spoke English and' Garcia spoke Spanish, the lengthy interview occurred through a translator. At sentencing, the officer produced her notes of the interview, which included one line regarding Garcia’s drug use, which the court examined:
THE COURT: Well, I am having trouble with your handwriting a little bit. “Denies ever using” slash, looks like experimenting or experiment “with drugs.”
[THE OFFICER]: Yes.
J.A. at 476. This notation allegedly reflects the willful false statement by Garcia that he did not use cocaine while out on bond. Garcia denied that he made such a statement and denied that he was trying to be deceptive in the interview. His attorney vigorously challenged the assertion that Garcia disavowed the use of cocaine while on bond:
I was present at that interview, and I speak both English and Spanish; and I was at the hearing ... for the revocation of the bond, the detention hearing. I would have had to have been in a coma not to have realized when [the officer] said have you ever used drugs or cocaine, and he responds “no,” and I am sitting there and listening and knowing that he was, ah, had tested positive on three occasions.
J.A. at 477.
There was no other evidence given regarding his statement. Since at the time of the interview it was so thoroughly established that Garcia had tested positive for cocaine and thereby been sanctioned, I do not think we can justly find that the government has met its burden of proof in showing that he willfully denied using the drug while on pretrial release. Had Garcia willfully denied using cocaine during this time, one would expect at least some sort of further discussion or explanation at the interview as to his statement’s conflict with the recent probation revocation. No one asserts that such a discussion transpired. Thus, an very likely explanation for what led to the probation officer’s ambiguous note is that a miscommuni-cation took place because the interview oc*677curred through translation; perhaps the question was unclear as to what types of drugs the officer meant, what time period his question referred to, or precisely what the term “experimenting” meant in translation. The note appears to indicate that the officer asked some general question dealing with drug use, not that she referred to “cocaine” or “pretrial release” specifically.
Application Note 1 to § 3C1.1 instructs courts that “statements should be evaluated in a light most favorable to the defendant.” Under this standard, I do not beliéve that enough evidence exists to properly support a specific determination that Garcia willfully denied cocaine use while on bond. I find it disturbing that Garcia has been punished with what could amount to as much as 2% years of additional prison time due to what was so very likely a miseommunication resulting from a language barrier.
II
Even assuming the government has shown that Garcia willfully told the sentencing officer “I did not use cocaine during my pretrial release,” such a false statement is simply not material to his sentencing. We previously have reversed § 3C1.1 enhancements based upon false statements that did not materially affect investigations and prosecutions. In United States v. Williams, 952 F.2d 1504, 1514-16 (6th Cir.1991), the defendant told FBI investigators several whopping lies, but he did so after the FBI’s investigation was almost complete. The panel held that the lies could not have obstructed the investigation, for they “fooled no one.” Id. at 1516. Williams thus applies an objective test for materiality, in which the court-must ask whether the lie obstructed or could have obstructed justice, rather than a subjective test, in which the court might ask whether the defendant intended to materially obstruct justice. See also, e.g., United States v. Perry, 991 F.2d 304, 312 (6th Cir.1993) (hurried and unsuccessful attempt to conceal evidence is not a material obstruction of justice); United States v. Fiala, 929 F.2d 285, 289-90 (7th Cir.1991) (false statement that caused officials l/(-hour delay did not materially obstruct justice).
As in Williams, Garcia’s statement fooled no one. The record showed that he tested positive for cocaine three times, and the order determining that he had done so was the law of the case. Cf. United States v. Gardiner, 955. F.2d 1492, 1499 (11th Cir.1992) (defendant’s statement to. the probation officer that he knew nothing about the cocaine at issue was not material because the jury already had found otherwise).
Even if the court somehow would have believed Garcia’s false statement, that fact could not have influenced his total offense level. This is because the sentencing guidelines provide no enhancements for persons who are using drugs, and Garcia had already been punished for doing so by having his bond revoked. Furthermore, the court found Garcia had accepted responsibility for his offense despite his drug use .while on bond.
Though it acknowledges that Garcia’s denial “was. not outcome determinative,” the majority finds it material because it was “relevant to the choice of sentence within the guideline range.” This argument eviscerates the materiality requirement, for the district court has complete discretion to select a sentence within the guideline range and thus may consider any information-about the defendant, no matter how trivial, in doing so. The argument also contradicts Williams and other cases in which the circuit courts have found statements to be immaterial even though the district court might have considered the information in choosing within the range. In my view, as the Guidelines instruct us.to evaluate statements in a light most favorable to the defendant, U.S.S.G. § 3C1.1, comment, (n.l), when a statement is not material to the determination of the sentencing level, we must not find it material for the reason that it might have affected the district court’s discretion within the level unless we have good reason to think the statement “would tend to influence or affect” that choice. Id. at n. 5. I would thus consider the statement material to the district court’s choice of sentence within the applicable range if the district court had stated that was the case. Here, the district court stated no reason whatsoever why the statement was material. See J.A. at 480-81; cf. also United States v. Cox, 985 F.2d 427, 431-32 (8th Cir.1993) (enhancement reversed in part because the government gave the district court no reason why the defendant’s statement was *678material). Garcia simply was sentenced in the middle of the applicable guideline range, and there is no reason to assume that the court would have given him a lighter sentence if it would have believed he did not use cocaine on pretrial release.
Finally, it appears that the majority’s finding that “Garcia’s failure to admit his cocaine use” was relevant erroneously focuses not on whether Garcia made a false statement that materially obstructs justice, but simply upon the fad that he made a false statement. In choosing a sentence within the applicable range, the district court may, if it wishes, consider the fact that the defendant told an immaterial lie. However, that possibility cannot make the lie a material false statement for purpose of applying the obstruction of justice enhancement, or the materiality requirement would be completely meaningless.
Ill
I would vacate Arturo Garcia’s sentence and remand for resentencing without the obstruction of justice enhancement, and therefore I respectfully dissent from section III-B of today’s opinion.