United States v. Joel Kimball

830 F.3d 747, 2016 U.S. App. LEXIS 13635, 2016 WL 4010512
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit
DecidedJuly 27, 2016
Docket15-2214
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 830 F.3d 747 (United States v. Joel Kimball) 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. Joel Kimball, 830 F.3d 747, 2016 U.S. App. LEXIS 13635, 2016 WL 4010512 (8th Cir. 2016).

Opinion

COLLOTON, Circuit Judge.

After Joel Kimball violated-the terms of his supervised release, the district court 2 revoked his supervision and sentenced him to 8 months’ imprisonment followed by 4 years of supervised release. Kimball appeals, arguing that the district court abused its discretion in revoking his supervised release and that his sentence is unreasonable. We affirm.

In 2008, Kimball pleaded guilty to one count of failure to register as a sex offender. See 18 U.S.C. § 2250(a). He served a term of 24 months’ imprisonment and commenced a ten-year term of supervised release. In 2014, the government petitioned to revoke Kimball’s supervised release, alleging that he had tested positive for a controlled substance. The district court found that Kimball had used a controlled substance, revoked his release, and sentenced him to 8 months’ imprisonment and 4 more years of supervised release. The *749 court also added a condition that Kimball reside at a residential reentry center for up to 120 days following his release from imprisonment.

When released in April 2015, Kimball reported to a residential reentry center in Waterloo, Iowa. Residential probation officer Kari Yates testified that Kimball was argumentative and that he expressed frustration when told that he was required to stay at the center for 120 days. He refused to sign his weekly case notes and a federal rent statement, answer questions about his employment, or acknowledge a reminder about an upcoming appointment. Kimball also failed to turn over his paycheck to the center as required, and he did not attend a scheduled meeting with Yates.

Based on this conduct, the center’s hearing committee determined that Kimball had disobeyed lawful orders by failing to sign required paperwork, had been in unauthorized possession of money by not turning his paycheck over to center staff, and had failed to comply with special conditions or participate in treatment by failing to attend a meeting with Yates. Kim-ball admitted two of the violations but claimed that he was never informed of the appointment with Yates so was not blameworthy for failing to attend. He conceded that he was uncooperative and disrespectful to Yates. Kimball also was loud and argumentative with another probation officer, Brian Draves, on several occasions when Draves informed him that he would not be allowed to return to his previous apartment because he had used drugs there.

Within a month of Kimball’s arrival at the reentry center, the government petitioned to revoke Kimball’s supervised release based on his rulé violations and his uncooperative manner. The district court determined that Kimball violated the terms of his supervision based on the undisputed rule violations; the court did not consider Kimball’s missed appointment in making its decision. The court calculated Kimball’s advisory guideline range of imprisonment for the violations to be 4 to 10 months. Because it was Kimball’s second revocation, and because he had committed violations within a few days of his most recent release, the court sentenced Kim-ball to 8 months’ imprisonment and another 4 years of supervised release. The court also reimposed the condition requiring Kimball to live at a residential reentry center for up to 120 days upon his release.

Kimball argues that the district court should not have revoked his supervision, because there were mitigating circumstances. He claims that his failure to cooperate with Yates was due in part to his frustration that Yates said he would have to stay at the center for 120 days. He points to the district court’s statement at his prior revocation hearing that he could leave the reentry center early if he made a smooth transition to the community, got a job and place to live, and was not a threat to the community. The court also stated, however, that Kimball “must abide by all rules and regulations of that facility.” Kim-ball admitted to violating rules of the reentry center, and the court did not abuse its discretion in rejecting his justification for his actions. Kimball also contends that he was not informed of the center’s rules and procedures, but the district court permissibly found based on Yates’s testimony that Kimball received and signed a copy of the facility’s rules.

Kimball next asserts that the district court should not have revoked his supervision because he did not violate any law and the violations he committed did not warrant revocation. He cites United States v. Reed, 573 F.2d 1020, 1024 (8th Cir. 1978), for the proposition that revocation “should not merely be a reflexive reaction to an accumulation of technical viola *750 tions of the conditions imposed upon the offender.” Even where a defendant’s violations “are not particularly serious in terms of their danger to society,” however, a district court may revoke supervision where a defendant’s actions express “a pervasive unwillingness to follow the rehabilitation program.” United States v. Burkhalter, 588 F.2d 604, 607 (8th Cir. 1978).

The district court’s findings about Kim-ball’s history show this sort of pervasive unwillingness. In 2014, before revoking Kimball’s supervised release, the court imposed incremental sanctions in response to Kimball’s repeated violations of his drug treatment program. The measured approach did not work, and the court eventually revoked Kimball’s release after continued violations. The court observed then that it had treated Kimball “extremely leniently” despite his repeated lies to probation officers and the court about his drug use. In 2015, after his release from imprisonment, Kimball began to violate rules of the reentry center shortly after he arrived, and he repeatedly was uncooperative with probation officers. The court found that Kimball was “[u]nusually frustrated and unusually emotional” in his testimony at the revocation hearing, and observed that Kimball had a history of displaying anger and difficulty with self-control. Throughout his interactions with the court, Kimball thus expressed “a stubborn unwillingness to comply with the conditions of his supervised release,” United States v. Melton, 666 F.3d 513, 516 (8th Cir. 2012), and the court did not abuse its discretion in revoking his supervision.

Kimball also contends that his sentence is unreasonable. We review the reasonableness of Kimball’s sentence under a deferential abuse-of-discretion standard. Gall v. United States, 552 U.S. 38, 41, 51, 128 S.Ct. 586, 169 L.Ed.2d 445 (2007). Because Kimball’s sentence is within the advisory guideline range, we presume that it is reasonable. United States v. Scales, 735 F.3d 1048, 1052 (8th Cir. 2013); see Rita v. United States, 551 U.S. 338, 347, 127 S.Ct. 2456, 168 L.Ed.2d 203 (2007).

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

United States v. Dennis Brown
Eighth Circuit, 2023
United States v. Fabian Uribe
Eighth Circuit, 2018
United States v. Eric Hans
Eighth Circuit, 2018
United States v. Janis Kreitinger
710 F. App'x 269 (Eighth Circuit, 2017)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
830 F.3d 747, 2016 U.S. App. LEXIS 13635, 2016 WL 4010512, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-joel-kimball-ca8-2016.