United States v. Kenneth Raney

797 F.3d 454, 2015 U.S. App. LEXIS 14126, 2015 WL 4747943
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit
DecidedAugust 12, 2015
Docket14-3265
StatusPublished
Cited by19 cases

This text of 797 F.3d 454 (United States v. Kenneth Raney) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Seventh 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. Kenneth Raney, 797 F.3d 454, 2015 U.S. App. LEXIS 14126, 2015 WL 4747943 (7th Cir. 2015).

Opinion

ROVNER, Circuit Judge.

Kenneth Raney was convicted of interstate travel with intent to engage in a sexual act with a minor, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 2423(b), and attempt to manufacture child pornography, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 2251(a). He was sentenced to 145 months’ imprisonment, followed by three years of supervised release. After successfully serving the term of imprisonment, Raney faltered during the period of supervised release, skirmishing with three different probation officers. The district court ultimately revoked his supervised release and returned him to prison. He appeals from the order revoking his supervised release. We affirm the court’s revocation of supervised release but we vacate and remand for resentencing.

A.

At the time of his initial sentencing, the district court imposed on Raney thirteen “Standard Conditions of Supervision” and five additional “Special Conditions.” Ra-ney subsequently agreed to four additional Special Conditions, for a total of twenty-two. Shortly after his release from prison in February 2012, Raney’s probation officer reported to the court that Raney violated two of the conditions of his supervision. In May 2012, the officer reported that Raney had failed to report to the probation office within seventy-two hours of his release, and that he had associated with a felon, Timmy Reichling, without the permission of his probation officer. The court took no action on these violations because Raney was otherwise compliant and was shortly transferring out of the Northern District of Illinois to the Western District of Wisconsin. Raney was admonished not to associate with the felon (who was also Raney’s cousin) without seeking the permission of his probation officer.

A new probation officer took over Ra-ney’s supervision in Wisconsin in July 2012. In September 2012, the new probation officer filed two petitions for warrants alleging violations of the Standard and Special Conditions of supervision. In particular, the officer alleged that Raney was again in unsupervised contact with his cousin, and that he was found in possession of a memory stick without prior approval from his probation officer. After a hearing, the district court decided not to revoke Raney’s supervised release but warned him to adhere scrupulously to the conditions imposed.

In January 2014, Raney was again assigned a new probation officer, Kristin Kiel. In April of that year, Kiel requested a modification to the conditions of supervised release, requiring Raney to submit to electronic monitoring for 120 days because a polygraph examiner had determined that Raney was not truthful in answering two questions during a polygraph test. Raney consented to the monitoring and the court accordingly modified the conditions. Against this backdrop of Raney’s repeated issues with supervised release, in September 2014, Kiel filed another petition for a warrant, this time alleging that Raney had violated Standard Condition 3, and that he *458 had failed to make agreed payments towards the cost of his electronic monitoring. 1

Standard Condition 3 provided that “the defendant shall answer truthfully all inquiries by the probation officer and follow the instructions of the probation officer[.]” R. 2-4, at 3. According to Kiel’s petition,

On May 31, 2014, Kenneth Raney was granted permission to travel outside the Western District of Wisconsin to visit the Milwaukee County Zoo with his cousin, Dan, and Dan’s girlfriend, Cindy. Although Mr. Raney specifically informed this officer that only he, Dan and Cindy would be going on the trip, a Jackie Hauser and her two minor sons also went with them.
On September 10, 2014, during the pretest phase of a sex offender polygraph evaluation, Kenneth Raney told the po-lygrapher that his U.S. probation officer was aware of a sexual relationship he had with “Jackie,” and said that his U.S. probation officer was aware that he went camping with “Jackie” and her two minor sons during the weekend of September 6, 2014. At the time Mr. Raney was interviewed by the polygrapher, this officer was not aware of Mr. Raney’s relationship with Jackie or of the camping trip.

R. 16, at 1. After recounting Raney’s past problems with supervision, the petition continued:

During the pre-test phase of a sex offender polygraph on September 10, 2014, Mr. Raney indicated that this officer [Kiel] was aware of his girlfriend “Jackie,” the fact that she has two young sons, and the fact that they went camping in his recreational vehicle the weekend of September 6, 2014. This was not a true statement. On the monthly supervision report form for sex offenders submitted by Mr. Raney on September 9, 2014, for the month of August, he indicated that he was seeing “Jackie Hauser” and noted that she had sons ages 10 and 12. On September 11, 2014, this officer received a text message from Mr. Raney indicating, “Woman im seeing, Jackie, phone number is xxx-xxx-xxxx.” Mr. Raney first told his sex offender therapist about “Jackie” on September 19, 2014. This officer conducted a telephone interview with Jackie Houser [sic] on September 16, 2014. Ms. Houser [sic] stated that she had been dating Mr. Raney since June 2014. She stated that she and her sons went to the zoo with Mr. Raney early in their relationship. She estimated they see each other every other weekend. She stated she and her two youngest children, sons ages 12 and 10, went camping with Mr. Raney in his camper the weekend of September 6, 2014.

R. 16, at 2.

At the revocation hearing, the United States presented testimony from Kiel and from Susan McDonald, Raney’s therapist. Kiel testified that on May 31, 2014 at 4:23 p.m., Raney sent her a text message:

Dan and cindy are thinking of going to zoo in milwaukee. They asked me to go if they do. Told them i Id ask u. so is it ok

R. 24-3. Standard Condition 1 required Raney to ask for permission for this trip because Milwaukee is outside the Western District of Wisconsin, where Raney was serving his supervised release. R. 2-4, at 3 (“the defendant shall not leave the judicial district without the permission of the *459 court or probation officer”). Kiel texted in response, “Who is driving?” Raney responded, “Dan, cindy is in wheelchair.” Kiel replied, “I need Dans phone number please. Then text when you leave and when you return please.” R. 24-3. Raney provided numbers for Dan and Cindy.

Kiel testified that the next morning at 7:09 a.m., Raney sent her a text message stating, “We are going to zoo now.” Kiel then called Dan, who was, at that very moment, driving to the zoo. Unbeknownst to Kiel, Dan was talking to her on a hands-free speaker phone, in a conversation that could be heard by all of the occupants of the car. Also unbeknownst to Kiel, those occupants included not only Dan, Cindy and Raney, but also Cindy’s cousin Jackie Hauser and Jackie’s two sons, aged ten and twelve.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
797 F.3d 454, 2015 U.S. App. LEXIS 14126, 2015 WL 4747943, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-kenneth-raney-ca7-2015.