United States v. Wilson Paul Perkins

929 F.2d 436, 1991 U.S. App. LEXIS 5416, 1991 WL 45112

• Court: Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit
• Decided: April 4, 1991
• Docket: 90-1983
• Status: Published

Opinions

WOLLMAN, Circuit Judge.

Wilson Paul Perkins appeals his sentence of 84 months’ imprisonment that the district court¹ imposed following Perkins’ guilty pleas to two counts of credit card fraud and one count of fraud by wire. We find adequate support in the record for the district court’s departure from the Sentencing Guidelines and affirm Perkins’ sentence.

I.

Between July and October 1989, while on probation for past frauds, Perkins obtained a Citicorp Diners Club credit card under a false name and charged approximately $3,260 worth of goods and services. During the same period, Perkins fraudulently obtained credit from Contel Cellular Store, Sears, and General Electric, and ordered merchandise worth approximately $22,534. Perkins deposited four checks totaling $6,500 into bank accounts opened under false names and withdrew $1,100 before the checks were returned for insufficient funds. Between April and August 1989, Perkins used false identities and opened accounts with U.S. Sprint, My Girl Friday answering service, Blair Company in Pennsylvania, and CVN Television Shopping Channel in Minnesota, leaving a total outstanding balance of approximately $1,500. A few payments were made to these false credit accounts by bad checks written by Perkins in the name of John E. Baker.

Perkins’ criminal record spans close to fifteen years of thefts and forgeries. His remarkable history of fraud incorporates a proclivity toward other people’s identities. Perkins used nine different social security numbers and fraudulently obtained seventeen credit cards under various names. Unfortunately for a few of his victims, Perkins preferred some identities more than others and used them to perpetrate a disproportionate amount of fraud in their names. John Edward Baker is one of those victims.

In 1981, Perkins used Mr. Baker’s name to pass insufficient funds checks. That same year, Perkins used Mr. Baker’s name and identity to gain employment, then was arrested for the theft of office machines from that employer. John Baker’s name falsely appears on records of aggravated robbery investigations in Texas in 1981 and for shoplifting and passing bad checks in 1982. Perkins apparently intended to assume John E. Baker’s name and identity on a permanent basis, for in March 1982, he married under that feigned identity. Perkins’ two children from that marriage are named Baker also.

Compounding an already complex history of deceit, Perkins came into possession of John Baker’s authentic identification in 1983 and thereby obtained Mr. Baker’s college transcripts from the University of Mississippi and Southern Methodist University. Using Mr. Baker’s transcripts, social security number, birth date, and complete identification, Perkins enrolled in a doctorate program at the University of Arkansas and fraudulently obtained a student loan. Perkins’ crime was not discovered until the true John Baker was contacted by the University of Arkansas to secure payment of the fraudulently obtained loan. Mr. Baker’s records at the University of Arkansas have never been expunged and reflect the incompletes and failing grades Perkins put there, despite Mr. Baker’s efforts to explain Perkins’ fraud.

Perkins again used John Baker’s identification in 1985, while on probation following his incarceration for the 1981 and 1982 crimes. This time, Perkins used Mr. Baker’s name to purchase a security system from Rollins Protective Services and a computer from Sears. Upon discovery of the 1985 scheme, Perkins’ probation was revoked in 1986 and he was incarcerated. Perkins was released from prison on July 28, 1989. Perkins began his most recent series of crimes within days of being released and once again used John Baker’s identity to establish fraudulent credit.

II.

The Sentencing Guidelines range suggested for Perkins’ crimes is 30-37 months. The district court increased Perkins’ sentence to 84 months’ imprisonment based on the Guideline’s objective of deterring crime and the exceptional financial and emotional hardship to John E. Baker. We note that the total sentence of seven years’ imprisonment is less than one-third of the statutory maximum of twenty-five years for the three counts to which Perkins pleaded guilty.²

The district court may depart from the Guidelines if it finds aggravating or mitigating circumstances which are not adequately taken into consideration by the Guidelines, 18 U.S.C. § 3553(b), and it pro-vides the specific reason for the departure. 18 U.S.C. § 3553(c). We review the reasonableness of an upward departure based on circumstances not adequately considered by the Guidelines under an abuse of discretion standard. United States v. Carey, 898 F.2d 642, 645 (8th Cir.1990); United States v. Drew, 894 F.2d 965, 974 (8th Cir.1990), cert. denied, — U.S. —, 110 S.Ct. 1830, 108 L.Ed.2d 959 (1990). This review is “quintessentially a judgment call” and we respect the district court’s superior “feel” for the case. United States v. Snover, 900 F.2d 1207, 1211 (8th Cir.1990).

The district court concluded that Perkins’ actions caused Mr. Baker extreme psychological injury, Guidelines § 5K2.3, property damage and other damage not taken into account, Guidelines § 5K2.5, and that Perkins’ conduct was unusually cruel, brutal, or degrading, Guidelines § 5K2.8. We agree with the district court that Perkins ruined Mr. Baker’s academic record and has “ruined and muddied and s[u]llied forever” Mr. Baker's identity. What Perkins did to Mr. Baker and his family is reprehensible, and although the sentence imposed is lengthy, it was not an abuse of discretion for the district court to consider the impact of Perkins’ crimes on his victim.

We agree with the district court that Perkins’ crimes entailed aggravating circumstances which were not taken into consideration by the Guidelines and thus warranted an upward departure. Perkins has not once completed a term of supervised release or probation without returning to his pattern of criminal activity and committing the same types of offenses against the same person without any regard for the consequences to himself or Mr. Baker, The Guidelines were not drafted in anticipation of this type of behavior and were certainly not designed to permit the Per-kinses of this world to escape condign punishment for their crimes.

John E. Baker has spent years attempting to clear his good name. We agree with the district court that some peace of mind may return to Mr. Baker if Perkins is unable to further sabotage Mr. Baker’s character. In the meantime, perhaps John Baker will have the chance to restore his personal and academic reputation and to reestablish his solid credit rating, the latter attribute having in this next-to-cashless society a value approaching that inherent in a good name and most certainly exceeding that of the Bard’s purse.

The sentence imposed by the district court is affirmed.

1 . The Honorable H. Franklin Waters, Chief Judge, United States District Court for the Western District of Arkansas.

2 . Ten years on each of the two counts of credit card fraud (18 U.S.C. § 1029(c)(1)), and five years on the wire fraud count (18 U.S.C. § 1343).