United States v. Gerald Glenn Blunt

680 F.2d 1216, 1982 U.S. App. LEXIS 18101
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit
DecidedJune 22, 1982
Docket82-1220
StatusPublished
Cited by12 cases

This text of 680 F.2d 1216 (United States v. Gerald Glenn Blunt) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
United States v. Gerald Glenn Blunt, 680 F.2d 1216, 1982 U.S. App. LEXIS 18101 (8th Cir. 1982).

Opinion

HEANEY, Circuit Judge.

Gerald Glenn Blunt appeals from the district court’s February 10, 1982, decision which revoked his probation and sentenced him to two years imprisonment. We affirm.

On March 23, 1977, Blunt pled guilty to six counts of a sixteen-count federal indictment which charged him with possession and forgery of stolen United States Treasury checks in violation of 18 U.S.C. §§ 495 and 1708. Following his guilty plea, Blunt was sentenced to three separate two-year imprisonment terms to run concurrently. The sentences were to run consecutively to a state court sentence Blunt was then serving in the Arkansas Department of Correction. The federal district court also imposed a two-year probationary term to be served following completion of Blunt’s two-year federal sentence.

On March 7, 1979, Blunt was released from federal custody and, on March 8,1979, he began his two-year probation term. On October 17, 1980 — well within the two-year federal probationary period — Blunt was arrested by officials of the Pine Bluff, Arkansas, Police Department and charged with a state criminal offence — felony theft of property. Blunt’s federal probation officer was notified of the arrest the following day. On April 6, 1981, Blunt pled guilty to the state theft charge and was sentenced to a two-year prison term. Blunt was taken into custody by state officials on April 8, 1981, and the United States Marshal thereupon lodged a detainer with the Arkansas Department of Correction.

*1218 On March 8, 1981, slightly less than five months after his October 17, 1980, arrest and before the date he pled guilty to the state charge (April 6, 1981), Blunt completed his two-year federal probationary term. No formal action was taken to revoke Blunt’s federal probation until his probation officer requested and obtained a probation violation warrant on March 16, 1981. Blunt’s probation officer indicated that no formal action to revoke Blunt’s probation took place until March 16,1981, because the probation officer at that time learned from the Pine Bluff prosecuting attorney that a tentative plea agreement had been made on the state charge.

On January 25,1982, Blunt finished serving his prison term for the state felony theft charge. He was released from state custody subject to the federal detainer that had been lodged with the Arkansas Department of Correction.

On January 29, 1982, counsel was appointed for Blunt. A preliminary probation revocation hearing was waived and a final probation revocation hearing was set for February 10, 1982. After holding a final probation revocation hearing on that date, the district court revoked Blunt’s probation and sentenced him to two years imprisonment. The probation revocation decision was based on Blunt’s state court theft conviction, a conviction that resulted from acts occurring during Blunt’s two-year federal probationary term.

In this appeal, Blunt does not challenge the ground on which the district court revoked his probation. Rather, he argues that the probation revocation is invalid because it was untimely. Blunt’s argument that his probation revocation was untimely is two-pronged. First, he contends that a “probation revocation is untimely and violates due process of law when the probation officer has knowledge of the potential grounds for revocation for five months but allows the probationer to be discharged from his probation by operation of law before revocation proceedings are initiated.” He apparently argues that the district court lacks power to revoke probation after the probationer’s specific probationary term ends. 1

This argument is without merit. Eighteen U.S.C. § 3653 provides in relevant part that

[a]t any time within the probation period, or within the maximum probation period permitted by section 3651 of this title, the court for the district in which the probationer is being supervised or if he is no longer under supervision, the court for the district in which he was last under supervision, may issue a warrant for his arrest for violation of probation occurring during the probation period. [Emphasis added.]

Eighteen U.S.C. § 3651 provides that the probationary period, “together with any extension thereof, shall not exceed five years.”

“[A] district court’s jurisdiction over a person admitted to probation continues throughout the maximum probation period authorized by the statute (now 5 years under § 3651) even though the court fixed the period of supervised probation at a lesser time.” United States v. Swanson, 454 F.2d 1263, 1265 (7th Cir. 1972). “The sole effect of the expiration of a probationer’s term of probation, where that term is under five years in duration, is to terminate his supervision by the Probation Office.” United States v. Miller, 454 F.Supp. 440, 442 (N.D.Ill.1978) (citing United States v. Swanson, supra, 454 F.2d at 1266). See United States v. Fontana, 510 F.Supp. 158, 160 (W.D.Pa.), aff’d mem., 673 F.2d 1303 (3d Cir. 1981).

Blunt argues that our decision in United States v. Strada, 503 F.2d 1081 (8th Cir. 1974), supports his contention that the government was untimely in initiating formal probation revocation proceedings in his case. In Strada, this Court observed that “a revocation can occur after the probationary period only if the violation is one that *1219 occurred during that period and if formal revocation procedures — usually the issuance of an arrest warrant — are initiated during that period.” Id. at 1084. It is important to note, however, that in Strada, the district court had imposed the maximum probationary term permitted by 18 U.S.C. § 3651: five years. Thus, unlike the facts in this appeal, Strada was a case where the actual probationary term imposed was coextensive with the five-year maximum probationary term permitted by 18 U.S.C. § 3651. When considered in its factual context then, Stra-da is not inconsistent with 18 U.S.C. § 3653 as interpreted by Swanson, Miller and Fon-tana.

In this case, because Blunt’s probation violation occurred within his two-year federal probationary period and because the probation revocation warrant was issued and executed well within the maximum five-year period permitted by 18 U.S.C. § 3651

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Bluebook (online)
680 F.2d 1216, 1982 U.S. App. LEXIS 18101, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-gerald-glenn-blunt-ca8-1982.