United States v. Zabawa

• Decision Date: 03 June 2013
• Docket Number: No. 11–1519.,11–1519.
• Citation: 719 F.3d 555
• Parties: UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff–Appellee, v. Phillip ZABAWA, Defendant–Appellant.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Sixth Circuit

719 F.3d 555

UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff–Appellee,

v.Phillip ZABAWA, Defendant–Appellant.

No. 11–1519.

United States Court of Appeals, Sixth Circuit.

Argued: Oct. 5, 2012.

Decided and Filed: June 3, 2013.

ARGUED:John R. Minock, Cramer & Minock, PLC, Ann Arbor, Michigan, for Appellant. Kathleen Moro Nesi, United States Attorney's Office, Detroit, Michigan, for Appellee. ON BRIEF:John R. Minock, Cramer & Minock, PLC, Ann Arbor, Michigan, for Appellant. Kathleen Moro Nesi, United States Attorney's Office, Detroit, Michigan, for Appellee.

Before: COLE and KETHLEDGE, Circuit Judges; and THAPAR, District Judge.^*

OPINION

KETHLEDGE, Circuit Judge.

“Inflict” is a narrower term than “cause.” Here, while in federal custody, Phillip Zabawa assaulted a federal law enforcement officer. The officer responded by headbutting Zabawa, which left the officer with a cut over his eye. A federal grand jury later indicted Zabawa for assaulting a federal officer in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 111(a)(1) and (b). Zabawa was convicted of both offenses. But § 111(b) specifies that the defendant must “inflict[ ]” the predicate injury to the officer, rather than just proximately cause it; and here, the officer himself admitted that his injury might have resulted from his application of force ( i.e., the headbutt) to Zabawa, rather than from any force Zabawa applied to him. The district court found this distinction irrelevant, construing “inflict” to mean “cause.” We respectfully disagree, and reverse Zabawa's conviction under § 111(b).

I.

On December 2, 2003, Zabawa was transferred from the Wayne County Jail to the Theodore Levin U.S. Courthouse for a sentencing hearing. When Zabawa arrived at the courthouse lockup, Detention Enforcement Officer Gregory Shelton sent him to a cell, telling him to close the door behind him. Zabawa refused, saying “he'd been locked up for 15 years and the last thing he was going to do was close his own cell door.” Zabawa was agitated, so Shelton sent him to a nearby interview room to separate him from the other prisoners.

Detention Enforcement Officer David Murphy entered the interview room. When Murphy asked what was wrong, Zabawa exploded. He told Murphy that he was tired of being moved around and that, if he “ever got a gun, he'd be sure to use it.” Murphy replied, “you're not going to get one here.” Zabawa responded, “don't bet on it.”

At that point, Murphy decided to handcuff Zabawa to prevent him from disarming an officer. Before he could do so, however, Zabawa lunged at Murphy and started punching him. Murphy blocked the attack, and then got Zabawa onto the floor by elbowing, kneeing, and headbutting him. After a brief struggle, Murphy handcuffed Zabawa with the help of other officers.

During the fight, Murphy suffered a cut over his eye that required six stitches. Murphy later testified that he did not know whether the cut happened when he headbutted Zabawa or when Zabawa punched him.

On October 13, 2004, a grand jury indicted Zabawa for assaulting and inflicting bodily injury on a federal officer in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 111(a)(1) and (b). The indictment alleged only one injury: the cut above Murphy's eye. Zabawa pled not guilty. He then returned to state custody.

Although the district court set a trial date of February 8, 2005, Zabawa's trial did not take place for more than five and a half years. Between January 2005 and May 2006, Zabawa and the government agreed 10 times to postpone the trial. Then, on May 30, 2006, Zabawa's attorney moved to evaluate Zabawa's competency. The district court granted the motion, but did not enter a written order for a competency evaluation until February 2007.

Twenty-two months later, on December 2, 2008, the district court ordered Zabawa transported to a federal facility for the evaluation. But that order was not carried out, so the court issued a second transportation order on March 20, 2009. After the second order, it took 26 days to transport Zabawa to the evaluation, another 37 days to evaluate him, and 18 days more to return him to state custody. In July 2009, the psychologist who evaluated Zabawa sent the district court a report concluding that Zabawa was competent to stand trial. The court found Zabawa competent a month later.

Finally, in October 2009, Zabawa moved to dismiss the indictment on grounds that the delay in his federal prosecution had violated his statutory and constitutional rights to a speedy trial. The pendency of that motion pushed the trial back another 10 months. The district court denied the motion.

The court held a bench trial between August 30 and September 1, 2010, after which it found Zabawa guilty of inflicting bodily injury on Officer Murphy in violation of § 111(a)(1) and (b). The court sentenced Zabawa to 222 months' imprisonment. This appeal followed.

II.

A.

Zabawa challenges the sufficiency of the evidence supporting his conviction for “inflict[ing] bodily injury” on Officer Murphy in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 111(a)(1) and (b). But the relevant facts are undisputed: the cut over Murphy's eye might have resulted from Murphy's own headbutt, rather than from a punch by Zabawa. What the parties dispute, instead, is what “inflict” means. At the time of the fight between Zabawa and Murphy, § 111(a)(1) provided:

Whoever ... forcibly assaults, resists, opposes, impedes, intimidates, or interferes with any [officer or employee of the United States] while engaged in or on account of the performance of official duties ... shall, where the acts in violation of this section constitute only simple assault, be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than one year, or both, and in all other cases, be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than 8 years, or both.

Section 111(b) further provided: “ Whoever, in the commission of any acts described in subsection (a), uses a deadly or dangerous weapon ... or inflicts bodily injury, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than 20 years, or both.” (Emphasis added.) Thus, § 111 created three crimes: simple assault, punishable by up to one year's imprisonment; all other assaults, punishable by up to eight years' imprisonment; and assault in which the defendant uses a deadly or dangerous weapon or inflicts bodily injury, punishable by up to 20 years' imprisonment.

The question here is whether Zabawa “inflicted” the cut to Murphy's eyebrow even if the cut resulted from the actions ( i.e., the headbutt) of Murphy himself. The government argues the answer is yes: in its view, “inflict [ ]” as used in § 111(b) is synonymous with proximate cause, and Zabawa proximately caused all the injuries in the fight—because he started it. In response, Zabawa argues that inflict refers only to a particular type of cause, namely, to cause harm (usually a physical injury) by “strik[ing] against”; and moreover that, since the statute uses the active voice, the defendant must be the one who does the striking. The district court adopted the government's interpretation. We review the court's interpretation de novo. United States v. Gagnon, 553 F.3d 1021, 1025 (6th Cir.2009).

“Inflict” as used in § 111(b) is not defined by the statute itself. When a statute contains an undefined term, we give the term its ordinary meaning. United States v. Lumbard, 706 F.3d 716, 723 (6th Cir.2013). In determining that meaning, dictionaries are a good place to start. One dictionary defines “inflict” to mean “to cause (something unpleasant) to be endured” or, alternatively, “to give by or as if by striking.” Merriam–Webster's CollegiateDictionary 599 (10th ed. 1994). The former definition incorporates the word “cause” and thus arguably supports the government's interpretation here; the latter definition is precisely the one that Zabawa advocates. Two other dictionaries offer nearly the same two definitions. See Random House Unabridged Dictionary 979 (2d ed. 1993); Webster's Third New International Dictionary of the English Language Unabridged 1160 (1993). Thus, in the abstract, the dictionaries lend some support to each party's interpretation.

Our task in construing a statute, however, is to find not merely a reasonable interpretation, but the best one. (Agency cases are an exception.) And on balance the ordinary usage of “inflict” favors Zabawa's interpretation. “Inflict” is a more specialized term than “cause.” Inflict normally refers to direct physical causation of physical harm: “ inflicted heavy losses on the enemy; a storm that inflicted widespread damage.” American Heritage Dictionary 926 (3d ed. 1992). (When one departs from this sense of inflict—“the speaker inflicted a long and boring speech upon the audience”—the irony is usually intended.) This meaning holds almost anywhere one looks: the thermal and barometric conditions giving rise to a storm, for example, do not inflict widespread damage; the storm does. Othello dies from a wound that he inflicts upon himself, even though Iago proximately caused him to do it. Field Marshal Montgomery blundered by ordering his paratroopers to take “a bridge too far” at Arnem, but he did not inflict the heavy losses that followed; the Germans did. And neither did General Eisenhower inflict the injuries that his men suffered on D–Day.

So-called synonymous words often have significant variations of meaning. “Venerable” is more respected than “old”; “puerile” is more cutting than “childish”; “equanimity,” more admirable than “calm.” In each instance the specialized term conveys a nuance that the more general term does not. The same is true here. Inflict means something more precise—and thus something narrower—than merely “[t]o be the cause of or reason for; result in.” American Heritage Dictionary 305 (definition of “cause”). What inflict conveys is a sense of physical immediacy: to cause harm directly, by physical force.

That § 111(b) uses “inflict” in this sense is entirely consistent with the provision's context: “[w]hoever ... inflicts bodily...