United States v. Guyon

Procedural entryThis page is a short order in United States v. Guyon. Read the opinion of the Court — 27 F.3d 723
Court of Appeals for the First Circuit·Decided December 30, 1994·No. 94-1193·Published

Opinion

USCA1 Opinion



December 30, 1994
[Not for Publication] [Not for Publication]

United States Court of Appeals United States Court of Appeals
For the First Circuit For the First Circuit
____________________

No. 94-1193

UNITED STATES,

Appellee,

v.

RICHARD GUYON,

Defendant, Appellant.

____________________

APPEAL FROM THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT

FOR THE DISTRICT OF MASSACHUSETTS

[Hon. Rya W. Zobel, U.S. District Judge] ___________________

____________________

Before

Boudin, Circuit Judge, _____________
Bownes, Senior Circuit Judge, ____________________
and Stahl, Circuit Judge. _____________

____________________

Stephen J. Weymouth for appellant. ___________________
Kevin J. Cloherty, Assistant United States Attorney, with whom __________________
Donald K. Stern, United States Attorney, was on brief for appellee. _______________

____________________

____________________

STAHL, Circuit Judge. Defendant-appellant Richard STAHL, Circuit Judge. _____________

Guyon appeals his conviction for failure to appear at trial

in violation of 18 U.S.C. 3146(a)(1). We affirm.

I. I. __

BACKGROUND BACKGROUND __________

On June 27, 1991, on the fourth day of his trial on

charges of bank fraud in the United States District Court for

the District of Massachusetts, Guyon failed to appear. The

district court issued a bench warrant for his arrest, and

Guyon was apprehended approximately two weeks later in Idaho.

Guyon's trial continued without his presence, he was

convicted in absentia on the bank-fraud charges, and on __ ________

December 10, 1991, was sentenced to thirty-months

imprisonment. His sentence included a two-level enhancement

for obstruction of justice attributed primarily to a finding

that Guyon had perjured himself and only incidently to

Guyon's flight during trial.

After his arrest in Idaho, Guyon faced additional

bank-fraud charges in the United States District Court for

the Eastern District of Virginia. On November 4, 1991, he

was convicted on these charges and on January 24, 1992, he

was sentenced to thirty-seven months imprisonment, to run

concurrently with the sentence imposed in the Massachusetts

bank-fraud case. The Virginia sentence also included a two-

-2- 2

level enhancement for obstruction of justice due to Guyon's

flight during the Massachusetts bank-fraud trial.

On May 19, 1993, counsel was appointed to represent

Guyon in his appeal of the Massachusetts bank-fraud

conviction.1 Two days later, on May 21, 1993, nearly two

years after his flight from the Massachusetts bank-fraud

trial, the grand jury returned an indictment against Guyon

for failure to appear at that trial in violation of 18 U.S.C.

3146(a)(1).

Following the indictment, Guyon filed two separate

motions, each entitled "Motion to Dismiss Indictment." The

first sought dismissal on the grounds of unnecessary delay

pursuant to Fed. R. Crim. P. 48(b) ("Rule 48(b)") and the due

process clause of the Fifth Amendment, while the second

relied on the ground of vindictive and malicious prosecution.

After a hearing, the district court denied both motions,

reasoning that "while the pre-indictment delay was

unquestionably long and the government's justification for it

weak," Guyon had nevertheless suffered no prejudice because

of it. The court also held that a presumption of vindictive

prosecution did not exist where the additional charges

brought by the government were unrelated to the substance of

the underlying (bank-fraud) charge.

____________________

1. This conviction was affirmed in United States v. Guyon, ______________ _____
27 F.3d 723 (1st Cir. 1994).

-3- 3

After a bench trial, Guyon was convicted on the

failure to appear charge and was sentenced to three years

probation with that sentence to commence after completion of

the Virginia bank-fraud sentence, which Guyon was then

serving. The sentence also provided that he was to spend the

first six months of his probationary period at a Community

Treatment Center ("CTC"). This appeal followed.

II. II. ___

DISCUSSION DISCUSSION __________

Guyon now argues that the district court erred in

denying his motions to dismiss on the grounds of (1) pre-

indictment delay pursuant to Rule 48(b)2 and (2) vindictive

prosecution. Guyon also claims that the district court erred

in its application of the Sentencing Guidelines when

determining his sentence for the failure-to-appear

conviction. We address each argument in turn.

A. Rule 48(b) ______________

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