United States v. Lemoine

CourtCourt of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
DecidedOctober 8, 2008
Docket06-50663
StatusPublished

This text of United States v. Lemoine (United States v. Lemoine) 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. Lemoine, (9th Cir. 2008).

Opinion

FOR PUBLICATION UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE NINTH CIRCUIT

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA,  Plaintiff-Appellee, No. 06-50663 Central District of v.  California CHRISTOPHER LEMOINE, aka Terry D.C. No. Giagnoca, CR-03-00037-RT-01 Defendant-Appellant. 

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA,  Plaintiff-Appellee, No. 07-50083 Central District of v.  California CHRISTOPHER LEMOINE, aka Terry D.C. No. Giagnoca, CR-03-00037-RT-01 Defendant-Appellant. 

CHRISTOPHER LEMOINE,  Petitioner-Appellee, No. 07-35761 v. District of Oregon CHARLES A. DANIELS, Federal  D.C. No. Correctional Institution Sheridan, CV-07-00100-MFM Oregon, OPINION Respondent-Appellant.  Appeals from the United States District Court for the Central District of California Robert J. Timlin, District Judge, Presiding

14363 14364 UNITED STATES v. LEMOINE Appeal from the United States District Court for the District of Oregon Malcolm F. Marsh, District Judge, Presiding

Submitted May 9, 2008*

Filed October 9, 2008

Before: Richard C. Tallman and Richard R. Clifton, Circuit Judges, and Earl H. Carroll,** District Judge.

Opinion by Judge Clifton

*The panel unanimously finds this case suitable for decision without oral argument. See Fed. R. App. P. 34(a)(2). **The Honorable Earl H. Carroll, Senior United States District Judge, District of Arizona, sitting by designation. 14366 UNITED STATES v. LEMOINE

COUNSEL

Christopher W. Lemoine, pro se, as appellant in Nos. 06- 50663 & 07-50083 and as appellee in No. 07-35761.

Kelly A. Zusman and Scott E. Asphaug, Assistant United States Attorneys, Portland, Oregon, for appellant United States in No. 07-35761.

Michael J. Raphael and Robert C. Stacy II, Assistant United States Attorneys, Los Angeles, California, for appellee United States in Nos. 06-50663 & 07-50083. UNITED STATES v. LEMOINE 14367 OPINION

CLIFTON, Circuit Judge:

These consolidated appeals present the question of whether the Bureau of Prisons (BOP), the federal agency responsible for the incarceration of inmates, may require inmates who participate in the bureau’s Inmate Financial Responsibility Program (IFRP) to pay restitution to victims at a higher or faster rate than was specified by the sentencing court, without obtaining an order from the sentencing court directing or approving the larger payments. We conclude that the BOP may do so.

I. Background

Christopher Lemoine was, after a guilty plea, convicted of one count of wire fraud in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1343. That proceeding was in the Central District of California. Lemoine was sentenced to imprisonment for 77 months, to serve five years thereafter on supervised release, and to pay restitution in the total amount of $2,835,126.88, pursuant to the Manda- tory Victims Restitution Act (MVRA), 18 U.S.C. § 3663A. The Judgment and Probation/Commitment Order entered by the district court required that Lemoine pay restitution during his imprisonment “at the rate of not less than $25 per quarter, and pursuant to the Bureau of Prisons’ Inmate Financial Responsibility Program.” The order required Lemoine to make “monthly payments of at least $500” while on super- vised release.

After he began serving his sentence at the medium security facility operated by the BOP in Sheridan, Oregon, Lemoine enrolled in the IFRP. As a condition of his participation in the program, the BOP required that Lemoine pay restitution at a rate of $132 per month, a dollar figure and a frequency higher than the “not less than $25 per quarter” specified in the court’s judgment. Lemoine filed a motion with the sentencing 14368 UNITED STATES v. LEMOINE court, the Central District of California, to modify the judg- ment. He argued that the court had improperly delegated its authority to schedule restitution payments and raised a series of challenges, relying on United States v. Gunning, 339 F.3d 948 (9th Cir. 2003) (Gunning I), and United States v. Gun- ning, 401 F.3d 1145, 1150 (9th Cir. 2005) (Gunning II).

The district court denied Lemoine’s motion, reasoning that “the only duty which the Ninth Circuit has held non-delegable under the MVRA is that of scheduling restitution payments. Here, the court did not delegate scheduling to the BOP. It set the payment schedule as quarterly in its restitution order.” [Page 4 of C.D. Cal. Order entered October 20, 2006, which is ER 26 in the Oregon case originally assigned to us.] The court also noted that the phrase “pursuant to the Bureau of Prisons’ Inmate Financial Responsibility Program” was included in the judgment because the court assumed “sub silentio that the defendant would choose to participate in the voluntary IFRP program” to “qualify for certain benefits and advantages,” indicating that the order did not mandate Lem- oine’s participation and stating that “Lemoine did so choose [to voluntarily participate in the program], agreeing to pay $132.00 per month.” The court declined to reach the merits of Lemoine’s challenges to the IFRP itself because they were raised in his reply brief and because such challenges are “properly made in a habeas petition under 28 U.S.C. § 2241, and the petition should be filed in the district court in which petitioner’s place of incarceration is located.” [C.D. Cal. Order, at 6.] Lemoine, acting pro se, filed multiple appeals from the decision of the Central District of California, two of which are before us, Nos. 06-50663 and 07-50083.1 1 The appeals were from the district court’s denial of his motion to mod- ify a restitution order (No. 06-50663) and the denial of reconsideration (No. 07-50083). This court granted the government’s motion to dismiss another appeal, regarding an extension of time (No. 07-50084) because Lemoine was not aggrieved by that order. Lemoine voluntarily dismissed an appeal from the dismissal of a receiver motion (No. 07-50085). UNITED STATES v. LEMOINE 14369 Shortly after Lemoine’s unsuccessful challenge to his sen- tence, the BOP modified the schedule of restitution payments required from Lemoine under the IFRP, setting it as the mini- mum amount permitted under Lemoine’s sentencing order: $25 per quarter. The record does not make clear the reason for the change. Nonetheless, Lemoine followed the suggestion contained in the order entered by the Central District of Cali- fornia, and in January 2007 filed a pro se § 2241 habeas peti- tion in the District of Oregon, where he was then incarcerated. That court issued an opinion and order on July 20, 2007.

Lemoine’s District of Oregon petition presented three chal- lenges. First, he argued that the sentencing order impermiss- ibly delegated authority to the BOP to set his restitution repayment schedule. The Oregon district court said it declined to reach this claim because it was the subject of the direct appeal from the Central District’s order and was thus not ripe for collateral attack. Later in the order, though, the Oregon district court seemed to reject this challenge, by stating that “here the sentencing court set a schedule for making restitu- tion payments during incarceration” and therefore “did not unlawfully delegate that authority to the BOP.”

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