U.S. v. Bennett, 90-3128

• Decision Date: 14 February 1992
• Docket Number: No. 90-3128,90-3128
• Parties: UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Gary BENNETT, Defendant-Appellant.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Seventh Circuit

Page 738

943 F.2d 738

UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Gary BENNETT, Defendant-Appellant.

No. 90-3128.

United States Court of Appeals, Seventh Circuit.

Argued March 5, 1991.

Decided Sept. 16, 1991.

Rehearing and Rehearing En Banc

Denied Feb. 14, 1992.

John W. Vaudreuil (argued), Grant C. Johnson, Asst. U.S. Attys., Madison, Wis., for plaintiff-appellee.

Jeffrey Kassel (argued), Earl H. Munson, LaFollette & Sinykin, Madison, Wis., for defendant-appellant.

Before BAUER, Chief Judge, POSNER, Circuit Judge, and ESCHBACH, Senior Circuit Judge.

BAUER, Chief Judge.

This case arises from a scheme by Gary Bennett to defraud purchasers by rolling back the odometers in the cars he sold to them. The odometers were altered to qualify the cars for Chrysler Corporation's extended warranty. As part of a plea agreement, Bennett pleaded guilty to two counts of mail fraud. The essence of those counts was that Bennett used the mail to transmit an Application for Title/Registration to two customers which reflected false and fraudulent information regarding the odometer reading of the automobiles sold to those customers. Although only two counts involving two particular vehicles were charged in the information, as part of the plea agreement Bennett agreed that the court could impose restitution with respect to more than eighty vehicles which were purchased from Gary Bennett Dodge, Incorporated. In addition to a period of incarceration, the court ordered restitution in the amount of $137,000.00. That figure was based upon the more than eighty vehicles discussed in the plea agreement. While on probation, Bennett became unable to continue the $500.00-per-month restitution payments, and his probation was revoked.

The Supreme Court subsequently issued its decision in Hughey v. United States, 495 U.S. 411, 110 S.Ct. 1979, 109 L.Ed.2d 408 (1990), in which it held that restitution under the Victim Witness and Protection Act of 1982, 18 U.S.C. §§ 3579, 3580 (1982 ed. and Supp. IV) ("VWPA"), can be awarded "only for the loss caused by the specific conduct that is the basis of the offense of conviction." 110 S.Ct. at 1981. Based upon that decision, Bennett filed a motion for reconsideration of his sentence, arguing that Hughey limits the restitution in his case to the loss caused by the two sales.

The district court denied the motion because it found Hughey inapplicable. First, the court found that the case was distinguishable because the defendant in Hughey was not informed at the time of the plea that he could be ordered to pay restitution for other thefts. In contrast, Bennett agreed to the restitution. The district court then declared that it had not imposed restitution under the VWPA, but rather had imposed it as part of the plea agreement to which Bennett agreed. On appeal, the government does not maintain that the district court could impose restitution through the plea agreement alone without reference to the VWPA. The district court could not exceed the sentencing authority of the VWPA simply because the government and defendant entered into a non-binding plea agreement to that effect. The focus of the arguments on appeal, therefore, concerns the proper interpretation of the Hughey decision.

In Hughey, the defendant was charged with three counts of theft by a United States Postal Service employee and three counts of unauthorized use of credit cards. Hughey pleaded guilty to one count of unauthorized use of a credit card, and the remaining charges were dismissed. As part of the factual basis for the plea, the government introduced evidence that Hughey had stolen at least fifteen other credit cards. 110 S.Ct. at 1981. The sentencing court imposed restitution for losses incurred in the other credit card thefts as well as for the theft which formed the basis for the conviction. The Fifth Circuit affirmed, holding that "the VWPA permits a court to require restitution beyond that amount involved in the offense of conviction when there is a significant connection between the crime of conviction and similar actions justifying restitution." United States v. Hughey, 877 F.2d 1256, 1264 (5th Cir.1989). In reversing that decision, the Court relied on the express language of the VWPA, which provides that "a defendant convicted of an offense" may be ordered to "make restitution to any victim of such offense." 18 U.S.C. § 3579(a)(1) (1982 ed., Supp. IV); 110 S.Ct. at 1982; see also §§ 3579(b)(1), (2), and (3). According to the Court, that language limited restitution to losses caused by the specific conduct which formed the basis of the offense to which the defendant pleaded guilty, and not to other related offenses of which defendant had been charged. With that decision, the Supreme Court rejected the practice of many circuits to consider related conduct and charges in the restitution order. See 110 S.Ct. at 1982 n. 2 and cases cited therein.

The government argues that Hughey is distinguishable from the present case because the offense of conviction in this case required proof of a scheme. Hughey was charged with a number of single-count apparently unrelated incidents. Bennett, on the other hand, was charged with a mail fraud scheme occurring over a two-year period and involving over eighty vehicles. The government argues that when the defendant pleads to a scheme, then the defendant can be required to make restitution for the entire scheme. See United States v. Marsh, 741 F.Supp. 1361 (D.Minn.1990). This argument distinguishes cases involving an ongoing scheme to defraud from cases in which the defendant is charged with a number of isolated offenses. We recognized such a distinction in United States v. Davies, 683 F.2d 1052 (7th Cir.1982), and must now determine the extent to which Hughey affects the validity of Davies.

After Hughey, the appropriate focus is on the conduct that forms the basis for the offense. In order to obtain a conviction of mail fraud, the government must prove that the defendant was engaged in a "scheme to defraud." The scheme alleged in the information and plea in the present case demonstrated a pattern of conduct that resulted in the alteration of odometers on cars sold to customers between July 1982 and October 1984. The information also alleged two specific mailings to two customers that occurred in furtherance of that scheme. The question in this case is whether restitution is limited to the victims of the mailings, or whether any victims of the alleged scheme can be included. Because a scheme to defraud is an element of the offense of mail fraud, a conviction pursuant to that statute allows restitution for all victims of that scheme. ¹ A district court addressing a similar fact situation reached this conclusion in United States v. Marsh, 741 F.Supp. 1361 (D.Minn.1990). Although the Hughey court rejected the notion that the difficulties in multi-count indictments justified an expansive interpretation of the VWPA, we need not...