Federal Circuits, 6th Cir. (April 14, 1993)
Docket number: 92-1826
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Id. vLex: VLEX-37535516
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Blondell Morey, Asst. U.S. Atty., Christopher P. Yates, (argued and briefed), Detroit, MI, for plaintiff-appellee.
Thomas V. Wilhelm (argued and briefed), Bloomfield Hills, MI, for defendant-appellant.Jerome Lewis, pro se.Before: KENNEDY and BATCHELDER, Circuit Judges; and BECKWITH, District Judge.*BATCHELDER, Circuit Judge.In July of 1990 Jerome Lewis went to an office of Bank One in East Lansing, Michigan, and applied for a loan to help finance the purchase of an Excalibur luxury car. In filling out the loan application, Lewis blatantly lied about important information such as the value of his assets, the length and locale of his employment, and the amount of his salary. He declined to mention that he was out on bond pending his Federal sentencing for credit-card fraud. The bank wrote Mr. Lewis a check for $28,000; he subsequently made two loan payments and then no more.The Government secured an indictment for bank fraud against Lewis. He pled guilty after signing a Fed.R.Crim.P. 11 plea agreement. Lewis's presentence report ("PSR") was distributed in May 1992; it recommended a sentence range of 18 to 24 months under the United States Sentencing Guidelines ("Guidelines"). The sentence consisted of 12 months imprisonment for bank fraud, to be followed consecutively by six months imprisonment for violating his bond from the credit card fraud conviction. On appeal, Mr. Lewis challenges his sentence; we affirm.I.Mr. Lewis contends that the District Court erred in imposing an additional sentence for breaking the law while released on bond. He argues that neither the court nor the Government gave him sufficient notice either at the time of his release or prior to sentencing that additional penalties would apply to any sentence resulting from his being convicted of a crime committed while released on bond. Since the Sentencing Guidelines require such notice, he claims that any such sentence imposed in violation of the prescribed procedure is unlawful.This court has never decided what type of notice to the defendant, if any, is required prior to tacking on an additional sentence, or enhancing a sentence handed down for conviction for a crime committed while the perpetrator was released on bond pursuant to 18 U.S.C. 3147.1 The Courts of Appeals which have visited the matter, however, have split on the issue.In United States v. Cooper, 827 F.2d 991 (4th Cir.1987), the court held that no enhancement under § 3147 is proper unless the judge initially authorizing release gave adequate and specific notice to the defendant of potential punishment under the statute and of the conditions under which it would apply. Cooper, 827 F.2d at 995. The court noted that 18 U.S.C. 3142 requires that the releasing judge inform a defendant being released on bond of the penalties and sentence enhancements that apply to those who violate the conditions of their release. While recognizing that § 3147 does not make notice a prerequisite to sentence enhancement, the court cited the Congress's "silence" on the matter and the "ambiguity" in the statute which justified its delving into the legislative history. Id. at 994. The court discovered that the Federal bond release provisions were based on District of Columbia law; while the D.C. statute corresponding to § 3147 specified that prior notice was not required, Congress "omit[ted] any comparable provision." Id. This, the court concluded, showed that "Congress did not intend § 3147 to apply ... where the warning was not given."2The Third Circuit stands at the other end of the spectrum with United States v. Di Pasquale, 864 F.2d 271 (3d Cir.1988), cert. denied,Try vLex for FREE for 3 days
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