U.S. v. Haack
| Decision Date | 13 April 2005 |
| Docket Number | No. 04-1594.,04-1594. |
| Citation | 403 F.3d 997 |
| Parties | UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. Darrin Todd HAACK, Defendant-Appellee. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Eighth Circuit |
Assistant U.S. Atty., Janet L. Petersen, argued, Sioux City, IA, for appellant.
R. Scott Rhinehart, argued, Sioux City, IA, for appellee.
Before MURPHY, HANSEN, and MELLOY, Circuit Judges.
Mr. Haack provided substantial assistance following his arrest on drug conspiracy and gun charges. Mr. Haack pled guilty, and the government moved for a downward departure under U.S.S.G. § 5K1.1 and 18 U.S.C. § 3553(e), recommending a ten percent departure on the conspiracy charge. The district court granted a much greater departure. The government appeals the sole issue of whether the district court abused its discretion by departing to an unreasonable extent. We reverse and remand for resentencing.
Mr. Haack participated in a multi-state marijuana trafficking conspiracy. It is undisputed that, at a minimum, he allowed other members of the conspiracy to deliver, package, and redistribute large quantities of marijuana to and from his rural residence near Waseca, Minnesota. Mr. Haack received cash as well as distribution quantities of marijuana as payment. He distributed the marijuana that he received.
Officers learned of Mr. Haack's involvement in part from their investigation of two Iowans, Tom and Jeannette Clayton. The Claytons told officers that they received their marijuana from Mr. Haack. Tom Clayton also told officers that he received a 9 millimeter handgun from Mr. Haack while picking up marijuana at Mr. Haack's residence. Officers used this information to obtain a search warrant for Mr. Haack's residence. During the search, officers discovered Mr. Haack at home with his children. Officers also discovered over forty pounds of marijuana and a .357 caliber handgun. On the night of his arrest, Mr. Haack provided a self-incriminating post-Miranda statement. In his statement, he named two coconspirators, Holly and Cesar Perez.
That night, local authorities held Mr. Haack at the Waseca County Jail in Minnesota. The following morning, federal officers took custody of Mr. Haack and drove him approximately 300 miles to Sioux City, Iowa, where his initial appearance took place before a United States Magistrate Judge. The government charged him in a two count indictment for conspiring to distribute 1000 kilograms or more of marijuana in violation of 21 U.S.C. §§ 846 and 841(a)(1) and (b)(1)(A), and knowingly using and carrying a firearm during and in relation to the drug offense in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 924(c).
According to Mr. Haack, an Assistant United States Attorney for the Northern District of Iowa told him and his counsel that no cooperation offer would be made at any time if he failed to cooperate immediately or demanded a detention hearing. Nevertheless, Mr. Haack requested a detention hearing. The district court denied his request. On April 14, 2003, Mr. Haack filed a Motion to Dismiss and a Motion to Suppress. On August 7, the district court denied Mr. Haack's motions.
In September, the government changed its position and offered Mr. Haack the opportunity to cooperate and provide assistance. Mr. Haack pled guilty to both counts and provided assistance in the form of information. Mr. Haack did not participate in any controlled buys on behalf of the government, work undercover, or otherwise place himself in a position of danger (other than the danger inherent in providing information to the government). Further, other than the information that he provided regarding the Perezes on the night of his arrest (which preceded any cooperation agreement), the only information he provided was information regarding parties already under investigation by the government. Mr. Haack was willing to testify against the Perezes.
At the sentencing hearing, the government moved for a downward departure on the drug count based on Mr. Haack's cooperation and substantial assistance under U.S.S.G. § 5K1.1 and 18 U.S.C. § 3553(e). The government recommended a ten percent departure. The government did not move for a departure on the gun count.
At the sentencing hearing, the district court explored the nature and extent of Mr. Haack's assistance to the government and the effect that this assistance had on the government's ability to investigate and prosecute other defendants or obtain pleas. In addition, the district court explored the issue of timeliness and whether the government penalized Mr. Haack for his initial assertion of rights through the request for a detention hearing and the motions to suppress and dismiss. The district court also addressed the issue of the truthfulness and completeness of Mr. Haack's statements. We address in detail the exchanges that took place during the sentencing hearing.
The government explained that the initial statement Mr. Haack made on the night of his arrest implicated coconspirators Holly and Cesar Perez. This information, together with phone tolls and scraps of paper that officers found in Mr. Haack's home, supported a search warrant for the Perezes' home. Although the government conceded that Mr. Haack's initial statement led to the investigation of the Perezes and helped officers obtain a search warrant for the Perezes' home, the government noted that Mr. Haack's early refusal to cooperate forced officers to gather additional evidence and deprived officers of the benefit of Mr. Haack's testimony for use in grand jury proceedings.
The government further explained that the Perezes started cooperating immediately and provided information about Mr. Haack and other conspirators. The Perezes, however, later withdrew their cooperation. When Mr. Haack agreed to cooperate in September, he gave some information regarding co-defendants Luis Caballero and Jose Martinez and gave more detail regarding the Claytons. Mr. Martinez also cooperated with the government. The government characterized Mr. Haack's assistance as being most helpful in obtaining guilty pleas from Holly and Cesar Perez. Mr. Haack was willing to testify against the Perezes, and the government believed that this willingness to testify, along with testimony from Mr. Martinez and scraps of paper from Mr. Haack's house, comprised the case against the Perezes that induced their guilty pleas.
The district court asked the government what effect Mr. Haack's decision to assert his right to request a detention hearing and move for suppression had on the timeliness and effectiveness of his assistance. The government explained that, because Mr. Haack's cooperation was delayed, the Perezes offered certain information that Mr. Haack could have provided, thereby decreasing the value of Mr. Haack's eventual cooperation. In addition, the government noted that Mr. Haack's election to seek a detention hearing and his decision to move for suppression or dismissal forced the government to develop evidence by other means. The government argued generally that Mr. Haack was less worthy of leniency than defendants who "come clean" immediately, forego their rights, and provide assistance early in an investigation. The district court stated:
[I]t does have an effect on timeliness, but I'm not going to use it in my mind because I think it kind of penalizes the defendant for exercising their right to challenge evidence, and every defendant has a right to do it.... It doesn't make him quite as timely as somebody who jumps on board, but that's just one of five factors.
Mr. Haack's attorney characterized the lack of timeliness as due to the government's policy of denying any opportunity for cooperation following a defendant's initial attempt to assert rights. According to Mr. Haack's attorney, the government changed its position and offered Mr. Haack the opportunity to cooperate only after conflicting stories from Tom Clayton and Jose Martinez created a need for corroborating testimony. In addition, he argued that when the government offered Mr. Haack the opportunity to cooperate, it needed a witness to testify against Luis Caballero and Cesar Perez.1
Regarding Mr. Haack's truthfulness and the completeness of his cooperation, the government stated that it had reservations as to whether Mr. Haack had told the "whole story" about the scope of the conspiracy around Waseca. The government noted that the full extent of the conspiracy was still not clear and that Mr. Haack provided information only about the conspiracy's core members, whom the government was already investigating.
The district court also questioned Mr. Haack's attorney about the gun count. The evidence suggested, and the government's theory on the gun count was, that Mr. Haack had placed a 9 millimeter handgun in a bag of marijuana and given it to Tom Clayton. It is undisputed that officers found a .357 handgun in Mr. Haack's residence on the night of the search. Regarding other activity with guns, the district court asked the government:
[I]s there any evidence in the discovery file that this defendant carried a weapon in furtherance of his drug-trafficking activity other than what you've already told me about with regard to these two weapons [the 9 millimeter reported by Tom Clayton and the .357 found during the search]?
The government responded that there was no such evidence. The district court then stated:
Okay. I'll tell you something. You know, I am no fan of the guidelines, but a 180-month sentence for somebody with a criminal history category 1 in a marijuana case, I'm not trying to say marijuana ought to be legalized or anything like that. I'm just saying, you know, I've given many outrageous sentences under these guidelines almost all in the drug area. He's not going to get a 180-month sentence because of substantial assistance, but just to think that you could for somebody in a criminal history category 1, you know, when are people...
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