U.S. v. Cooper

• Decision Date: 15 April 1999
• Docket Number: No. 98-1262,98-1262
• Citation: 171 F.3d 582
• Parties: UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Mark Anthony COOPER, Defendant-Appellant.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Eighth Circuit

Page 582

171 F.3d 582

UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Mark Anthony COOPER, Defendant-Appellant.

No. 98-1262.

United States Court of Appeals,

Eighth Circuit.

Submitted Nov. 16, 1998.

Decided March 18, 1999.

As Amended on partial Grant of Rehearing April 14, 1999.

Rehearing En Banc Denied April 15, 1999.

JoAnne Lilledahl, Cedar Rapids, IA, argued (Paul Papak, on the brief), for Appellant.

Steven M. Colloton, Assistant United States Attorney, Cedar Rapids, IA, argued, for Appellee.

Before BEAM, LAY, and LOKEN, Circuit Judges.

LOKEN, Circuit Judge.

Mark Anthony Cooper pleaded guilty to unlawfully transporting explosive materials in violation of 18 U.S.C. §§ 842(a)(3)(A) and 844(a). The district court sentenced him to time served and two years of supervised release. Cooper appeals the imposition of eight special conditions of supervised release. Two of the conditions are moot because Cooper has completed a three-month residency at the Gerald Hinzman Community Corrections Center, and the district court has removed the condition prohibiting him from entering Jones County without probation office consent. We affirm the remaining special conditions, except the condition prohibiting Cooper from employment as a truck driver.

I.

Cooper is a former Army explosives expert who brought C4 explosives to his home many years ago while working in a Marine Corps explosives disposal unit. After his discharge, Cooper moved the explosives with him from South Carolina to Iowa and put them in a rented storage locker. They were discovered in a warrant search based upon information furnished by Cooper's eleven-year-old daughter. Marijuana seeds, baggies, and syringes were also found in the locker. At the time, Cooper was employed as an over-the-road truck driver.

The district court held a pretrial detention hearing. The Iowa Department of Human Services reported that Cooper's daughter was in state custody after alleging that Cooper "put bruises on her legs," physically abused his wife and two children, and "disappeared for periods of three to four weeks at a time," and that her parents both used marijuana in their home. Mrs. Cooper testified that Cooper accidentally shot her through the door of their California home in 1982. Assault and firearm charges were pending against Cooper in state court for bringing to a police station at gunpoint a drug dealer whom Cooper suspected of cheating his wife in a marijuana purchase. The district court ordered Cooper detained as a danger to the community pending trial.

Prior to trial, Cooper moved for a competency hearing, and the court ordered a mental evaluation. A forensic psychologist reported that Cooper suffered major depression requiring "crisis intervention," but that he refused to be evaluated for antidepressant medication. Pursuant to court order, Cooper was then hospitalized for treatment at the Federal Medical Center in Springfield, Missouri. After he began taking the prescribed anti-depressant medications, Cooper's mental condition improved dramatically and he was released to the Hinzman Center in Cedar Rapids. He was then declared competent to stand trial and pleaded guilty to the explosives charge.

Prior to sentencing, the probation office opposed Cooper's request for a holiday release from the Hinzman Center because of reports he had abused his wife and children, and because his wife's state probation officer had urged her to have no contact with Cooper. On the eve of the sentencing hearing, the probation office reported that Cooper was taking his anti-depressant medication but his cooperation was "minimal at best." A psychiatrist reported that Cooper's mood improved when he is on medication, but he would probably cease taking medication if removed from a controlled environment. The probation office also reported Cooper's admission that, when employed as a truck driver prior to his detention, he would purchase one-half gallon of whiskey for himself and his wife each weekend, and a statement by his mother-in-law that the couple argued all the time but more when Cooper was drinking.

At the conclusion of the sentencing hearing, the district court imposed stringent special conditions because Cooper had previously been "non-functional" and "suicidal," his prior conduct was "not ... [that] of a reasonable, nondangerous person," and medication made a "tremendous difference" in Cooper's attitude and behavior. The court observed that the case had "gotten more difficult as time has gone on ... in large part because of Mr. Cooper's refusal to address the fact he has a problem that needs to be addressed and to accept the help and the assistance that's out there."

II.

Sentencing judges have discretion to impose special conditions of supervised release so long as the conditions are reasonably related to the sentencing factors enumerated in 18 U.S.C. § 3553(a), involve no greater deprivation of liberty than is reasonably necessary, and are consistent with the Sentencing Commission's pertinent policy statements. See 18 U.S.C. § 3583(d); United States v. Bass, 121 F.3d 1218, 1223 (8th Cir.1997); United States v. Prendergast, 979 F.2d 1289, 1292-93 (8th Cir.1992). The relevant statutes and Guidelines provisions set forth numerous discretionary conditions that a sentencing court is urged to impose when they are consistent with the broad statutory objectives of sentencing. See 18 U.S.C. § 3563(b) (discretionary conditions of probation, incorporated by reference in 18 U.S.C. § 3583(d)); U.S.S.G. § 5D1.3(c)-(e) (recommended "standard" and "special" conditions). Applying these standards, we review the special conditions imposed in this case for abuse of the district court's broad sentencing discretion.

Prohibition on Over-the-Road Truck Driving. The most difficult issue is Cooper's challenge to the special condition prohibiting him "from employment as a truck driver if it involves absence from Cedar Rapids, IA., for more than 24 hours." This condition effectively bars Cooper from his pre-detention occupation. He earned approximately $500 per week as an over-the-road trucker, substantially more than he has been able to earn at various other jobs since his supervised release. Cooper argues this condition is not reasonably related to his offense and imposes an overly-harsh financial hardship on himself and his dependents. We agree.

The Government argues this is not an occupational restriction, but rather a geographical limitation that reasonably ensures effective monitoring of Cooper by the probation office and compliance with special conditions such as random urinalysis and mental health treatment. This contention is without merit. The condition is an explicit occupational prohibition and therefore is subject to the limitations on imposing such conditions found in U.S.S.G. § 5F1.5(a):

(a) The court may impose a condition of probation or supervised release prohibiting the defendant from engaging in a specified occupation, business, or profession, or limiting the terms on which the defendant may do so, only if it determines that:

(1) a reasonably direct relationship existed between the defendant's occupation, business, or profession and the conduct relevant to the offense of conviction; and

(2) imposition of such a restriction is reasonably necessary to protect the public because there is reason to believe that, absent such restriction, the defendant will continue to engage in unlawful conduct similar to that for which the defendant was convicted.

These same limitations are found in 18 U.S.C. § 3563(b)(5), dealing with special conditions of probation. The legislative history of this statute confirms that Congress does not favor broad use of occupational prohibitions:

The condition may be imposed only if the occupation, business, or profession bears a reasonably direct relationship to the nature of the offense.... The Committee recognizes the hardship that can flow from preventing a person from engaging in a specific occupation.... This particular condition of probation should only be used as reasonably necessary to...