United States v. Kuchinski

CourtCourt of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
DecidedNovember 27, 2006
Docket05-30607
StatusPublished

This text of United States v. Kuchinski (United States v. Kuchinski) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Ninth 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. Kuchinski, (9th Cir. 2006).

Opinion

FOR PUBLICATION UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE NINTH CIRCUIT

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA,  No. 05-30607 Plaintiff-Appellee, v.  D.C. No. CR-04-00149-RFC JOHN CHARLES KUCHINSKI, OPINION Defendant-Appellant.  Appeal from the United States District Court for the District of Montana Richard F. Cebull, District Judge, Presiding

Argued and Submitted October 24, 2006—Seattle, Washington

Filed November 27, 2006

Before: Alex Kozinski and Ferdinand F. Fernandez, Circuit Judges, and Cormac J. Carney,* District Judge.

Opinion by Judge Fernandez

*The Honorable Cormac J. Carney, United States District Judge for the Central District of California, sitting by designation.

18789 UNITED STATES v. KUCHINSKI 18793

COUNSEL

Brad L. Arndorfer, Arndorfer Law Firm, P.C., Billings, Mon- tana, for the appellant.

Marcia Hurd, Assistant U.S. Attorney, Billings, Montana, for the appellee.

OPINION

FERNANDEZ, Circuit Judge:

John C. Kuchinski appeals his conviction and sentence for receipt and possession of child pornography. 18 U.S.C. §§ 2252A(a)(2), (a)(5)(B). Principally, he asserts that his prosecution for receipt and possession violated the double jeopardy clause,1 that any use of the United States Sentencing Guidelines violates the separation of powers doctrine, and that he was improperly sentenced when all child pornography images on his computer were counted for sentencing pur- poses. We affirm his conviction, but vacate his sentence and remand.

1 U.S. Const. amend. V. 18794 UNITED STATES v. KUCHINSKI BACKGROUND

After obtaining information that Kuchinski was involved in child pornography, the FBI obtained a search warrant for his computer. Upon execution of that warrant, between 15,120 and 19,000 separate images of child pornography were recov- ered therefrom. Sixteen of those images were located in the computer’s downloaded files and 94 were located in its deleted files (recycle bin). Kuchinski does not argue that he is not responsible for the possession of those images. How- ever, 1,106 images were in the Active Temporary Internet Files and another 13,904 to 17,784 images were in the Deleted Temporary Internet Files.2 Thereafter, Kuchinski was indicted for receipt of child pornography in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 2252A(a)(2) (count I), possession of child pornogra- phy, 18 U.S.C. § 2252A(a)(5)(B) (count II), and forfeiture of his computer equipment, 18 U.S.C. § 2253 (count III). He pled not guilty.

Kuchinski then entered into a plea agreement which pro- vided that he would plead guilty to possession of child por- nography and admit the forfeiture, whereupon the government would dismiss the receipt of child pornography count. Alas, although the plea agreement spelled out the fact that Kuchin- ski understood he was pleading to a charge which carried a maximum term of imprisonment of ten years, at the change of plea hearing he argued that the ten-year maximum term man- dated by the PROTECT Act3 did not apply to him. The gov- ernment disputed that, said it was a brand new issue, and declared that it was not willing to go forward with the plea agreement if Kuchinski refused to plead to charges under the PROTECT Act. After some discussion, the district court refused to accept or approve the plea agreement at that point. The court then continued the hearing to a later date. 2 These are sometimes hereafter referred to as the cache files. 3 PROTECT Act of 2003, Pub. L. No. 108-21, 117 Stat. 650 (2003). UNITED STATES v. KUCHINSKI 18795 At the later hearing, it became apparent that Kuchinski would not accept the plea agreement as presented, and he, instead, announced that he was prepared to plead guilty to to all three counts of the indictment, if that could be a condi- tional plea. The government, however, refused to agree to a conditional plea. Therefore, Kuchinski did plead guilty to pos- session of child pornography (count II) and admitted the for- feiture (count III). That left the receipt of child pornography charge (count I) for trial.

But Kuchinski still had one more trick up his sleeve. He, in effect, contended that because all elements of possession of child pornography were incorporated into the elements of receipt of child pornography, it would violate double jeopardy if the district court proceeded to trial on the latter count. The district court was not convinced and did proceed to hold a bench trial at which Kuchinski was found guilty.

Then came sentencing and a host of new objections. The only objections relevant on this appeal are Kuchinski’s claims that: since the PROTECT Act, the separation of powers doc- trine is violated because the United States Sentencing Com- mission need not have any judges on it; the PROTECT Act also removes sentencing discretion from district judges and, thereby, offends due process; and the district court erred when it calculated the number of child pornography images for which Kuchinski would be charged, a calculation that affected his Sentencing Guideline offense level. See USSG § 2G2.2(b)(6).4

The district court considered and rejected Kuchinski’s chal- lenges and sentenced him to seventy months imprisonment and three years of supervised release on both counts, with the sentences to run concurrently. This appeal followed. 4 Unless otherwise stated, all references are to the Sentencing Guidelines effective as of November 1, 2003. 18796 UNITED STATES v. KUCHINSKI JURISDICTION AND STANDARDS OF REVIEW

The district court had jurisdiction pursuant to 18 U.S.C. § 3231. We have jurisdiction pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1291 and 18 U.S.C. § 3742(a).

We review claims that the district court is required to enforce a plea agreement de novo. See United States v. Fagan, 996 F.2d 1009, 1013 (9th Cir. 1993). We also review claims that a rule or statute violates the separation of powers doctrine de novo. See United States v. Yacoubian, 24 F.3d 1, 3 (9th Cir. 1994). Similarly, we review claims of double jeop- ardy violations de novo. See United States v. Jose, 425 F.3d 1237, 1240 (9th Cir. 2005). And, as with other constitutional issues, we review claims that the Sentencing Guidelines are unconstitutional de novo. See United States v. Leasure, 319 F.3d 1092, 1096 (9th Cir. 2003).

We review the district court’s interpretation of the Sentenc- ing Guidelines de novo. See United States v. Nielsen, 371 F.3d 574, 582 (9th Cir. 2004). Moreover, we review applica- bility of the Sentencing Guidelines to a particular offense de novo. See United States v. Alcarez-Camacho, 340 F.3d 794, 796 (9th Cir. 2003). The district court’s applications of the Sentencing Guidelines to the facts of a case are reviewed for an abuse of discretion. See United States v. Miguel, 368 F.3d 1150, 1155 (9th Cir. 2004).

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