United States v. Phillip

504 F. App'x 67
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Second Circuit
DecidedDecember 10, 2012
Docket11-4862-cr
StatusUnpublished

This text of 504 F. App'x 67 (United States v. Phillip) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Second 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. Phillip, 504 F. App'x 67 (2d Cir. 2012).

Opinion

SUMMARY ORDER

This appeal follows numerous convictions of defendant-appellant Sharron Kimberly Phillip (“Phillip”). We assume the parties’ familiarity with the facts and procedural history of this case.

*69 On September 14, 2005, Phillip pleaded guilty to cashing approximately $128,000 in false checks, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 666(a)(1)(A), while she was the Executive Director of Prospect Home Care, an organization that contracted to provide home care to elderly residents on Medicaid in New York City. The Guidelines range for Phillip’s conduct was 18 to 24 months. At her first sentencing hearing, on July 26, 2006, before the District Court, Phillip received a below-Guidelines sentence of four years of probation and payment of $128,854.26 in restitution. Prior to the imposition of sentence, Phillip represented to Judge Glasser that she had an active nursing license and was working as a licensed practical nurse.

It was subsequently discovered that Phillip was neither a licensed practical nurse nor had she ever received any training as a nurse. Rather, she had stolen the identifying information of a registered nurse to acquire a fraudulent license, which she then used to work as a nurse from January 2005 to October 2009, performing a variety of tasks — including treating wounds and administering injections — for which she was not trained.

Phillip was arrested in connection with this conduct on October 22, 2009 and charged with three New York state violations: (1) Grand larceny in the second degree, in violation of New York Penal Law § 155.40; (2) Identity theft in the first degree, in violation of New York Penal Law § 190.80(8); and (8) Unauthorized practice of a profession, in violation of New York Education Law § 6512(1). Phillip pleaded guilty, in the Supreme Court of the State of New York, Richmond County, to the unauthorized practice of a profession charge and received a sentence of 24 months in state custody.

In federal court, Phillip was charged with violating her probation by committing the three crimes for which she faced state charges, and for failing to make restitution payments. As in state court, she pleaded guilty to the unauthorized practice charge, in satisfaction of all outstanding charges. Prior to Phillip’s second federal sentencing, a report of the U.S. Probation Office was prepared which advised Judge Glasser that the advisory custody term for the unauthorized practice of a profession was four to ten months’ imprisonment. At the sentencing hearing, on November 10, 2011, Judge Glasser considered a number of factors on the record: (1) that Phillip had been committing the “more serious crime” of falsely practicing as a licensed nurse, even while awaiting her original federal sentence in 2006; (2) that the 24 month state court sentence was “remarkably lenient”; (3) that in violating the terms of her probation, Phillip had committed identity theft, effectively stole $50,000 in salary, and had “[e]ndanger[ed] lives” by falsely practicing as a licensed nurse; and (4) that Phillip had not paid restitution as required under her federal probation term. Judge Glasser ultimately imposed an above-Guidelines sentence of 18 months’ imprisonment on Phillip, along with a further three years’ supervised release. This appeal followed.

A.

We review sentences for violations of probation or supervised release for reasonableness, which amounts to a deferential abuse-of-discretion standard. See United States v. Verkhoglyad, 516 F.3d 122, 127, 130 (2d Cir.2008) (supervised release); United States v. Goffi, 446 F.3d 319, 321 (2d Cir.2006) (probation); see generally United States v. Cavera, 550 F.3d 180, 187, 189 (2d Cir.2008) (en banc). A district court abuses its discretion if it has (1) “based its ruling on an erroneous view of the law,” (2) made a “clearly erroneous *70 assessment of the evidence,” or (3) “rendered a decision that cannot be located within the range of permissible decisions.” Sims v. Blot, 534 F.3d 117, 132 (2d Cir.2008) (citations and internal quotation marks omitted). “This standard applies both to the substantive reasonableness of the sentence itself and to the procedures employed in arriving at the sentence.” United States v. Hasan, 586 F.3d 161, 168 (2d Cir.2009) (alteration and internal quotation marks omitted).

“When reviewing a sentence, we ‘must first ensure that the district court committed no significant procedural error, such as failing to calculate (or improperly calculating) the Guidelines range, ... or failing to adequately explain the chosen sentence.’ ” United States v. Ahders, 622 F.3d 115, 119 (2d Cir.2010) (quoting Gall v. United States, 552 U.S. 38, 51, 128 S.Ct. 586, 169 L.Ed.2d 445 (2007)). Following a review for procedural error, “[w]e must then conduct a substantive review by evaluating the length of the sentence imposed in light of the factors enumerated under 18 U.S.C. § 3553(a).” Id. (internal quotation marks omitted). “Although the brevity or length of a sentence can exceed the bounds of ‘reasonableness,’ we anticipate encountering such circumstances infrequently.” United States v. Fleming, 397 F.3d 95, 100 (2d Cir.2005).

B.

Phillip raises three main arguments relating to her procedural unreasonableness claim: (1) the District Court focused on the seriousness of her underlying crime, rather than on her breach of trust, as directed by the relevant Sentencing Commission policy statement, see U.S.S.G. ch. 7, pt. A intro, cmt. (3)(b) (explaining that probation violation proceedings sanction primarily a breach of trust, rather than violation conduct); (2) the District Court may not have correctly determined her Guidelines range; 1 and (3) the District Court did not give sufficient reasons for imposing an above-Guidelines sentence.

In raising the first claim, Phillip misunderstands the nature of a sentence for violation of probation. We have noted that “while a probation violation sentence plainly sanctions a defendant’s breach of trust rather than [her] violation conduct, it is important not to lose sight of the fact that it does not sanction only the breach of trust. Rather, it resentences the defendant for the crime of conviction mindful that [she] has breached the trust placed in [her] by a probationary sentence.” Verkhoglyad, 516 F.3d at 130 n. 6. The District Court followed these precepts when sentencing Phillip for her probation violation.

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Related

United States v. Verkhoglyad
516 F.3d 122 (Second Circuit, 2008)
United States v. Fernandez
443 F.3d 19 (Second Circuit, 2006)
Gall v. United States
552 U.S. 38 (Supreme Court, 2007)
United States v. Ahders
622 F.3d 115 (Second Circuit, 2010)
United States v. Elbert
658 F.3d 220 (Second Circuit, 2011)
United States v. Daniel Lee Fleming
397 F.3d 95 (Second Circuit, 2005)
United States v. Myrisa v. Lewis
424 F.3d 239 (Second Circuit, 2005)
United States v. Charles Goffi
446 F.3d 319 (Second Circuit, 2006)
Sims v. Blot
534 F.3d 117 (Second Circuit, 2008)
United States v. Cavera
550 F.3d 180 (Second Circuit, 2008)
United States v. Hasan
586 F.3d 161 (Second Circuit, 2009)

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Bluebook (online)
504 F. App'x 67, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-phillip-ca2-2012.