U.S. v. Ralph, 06-1293.

• Decision Date: 30 March 2007
• Docket Number: No. 06-1293.,06-1293.
• Parties: UNITED STATES of America, Appellee, v. John Robert RALPH, Appellant.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Eighth Circuit

480 F.3d 888

UNITED STATES of America, Appellee, v. John Robert RALPH, Appellant.

No. 06-1293.

United States Court of Appeals, Eighth Circuit.

Submitted: March 16, 2007.

Filed: March 30, 2007.

Keith D. Sorrell, U.S. Attorney's Office, Cape Girardeau, MO, for Appellee.

Jeffrey J. Rosanswank, Federal Public Defender's Office, Cape Girardeau, MO, for Appellant.

John Robert Ralph, Farmington, MO, pro se.

Before MELLOY, SMITH, and BENTON, Circuit Judges.

SMITH, Circuit Judge.

John Robert Ralph's supervised release was revoked after the district court¹ determined that Ralph violated two conditions of his supervised release. Ralph appeals, arguing that the district court erroneously relied on the inconsistent testimony of one government witness in revoking his supervised release and that insufficient evidence exists that he failed to timely report an arrest to justify revocation of his supervised release. We affirm.

I. Background

Ralph was convicted of being a felon in possession of firearms, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 922(g)(1). The district court sentenced Ralph to a term of imprisonment of one year and one day, to be followed by three years of supervised release.

At the time of Ralph's federal sentence, he had been charged in the Circuit Court of Wayne County, Missouri, with attempted sodomy in the first degree for committing a deviant sex act with a child less than 14 years old. After his release from federal prison, Ralph was sentenced to 10 years' imprisonment for the state charge. However, his sentence was suspended, and he was placed on five years' probation. As a special condition of that probation, Ralph was prohibited from having unsupervised contact with minor children other than his biological children.

Ralph subsequently became involved with Karen Reed. Reed had three children, one of which was L.R., an 11-year-old girl. Ralph began spending nights at Reed's residence. According to L.R., shortly before midnight one evening, Ralph entered her bedroom, walked over to her bed, and put his hand under her shorts. She said that he inserted his fingers into her vagina and fondled her for 20 minutes. She said that Ralph instructed her not to tell anyone and that they might do it again another time.

Thereafter, Reed received information that Ralph was a convicted sex offender. She asked her children if Ralph had inappropriately touched them, and L.R. told Reed that Ralph had entered her bedroom and fondled her. Reed immediately reported the incident to authorities. A Missouri Division of Family Services (DFS) worker interviewed L.R. about the molestation event and made a tape of the interview.

Ralph was arrested on a warrant charging him with violating the terms of his state probation. According to the United States Probation Office, Ralph failed to report this arrest. Ralph was found to have violated the terms of his state probation and was sentenced to 10 years' imprisonment.

Subsequently, a federal arrest warrant was issued for Ralph based on a petition to revoke his supervised release. The petition alleged two violations of supervised release: (1) that Ralph committed a state crime by molesting L.R. and (2) that he failed to notify his probation officer within 72 hours of being arrested or questioned by a law enforcement officer.

The United States Probation Office prepared a Sentencing Computation Summary. The report reflected that molestation is a Grade A violation under U.S.S.G. § 7B 1.1(a)(1)(A)(ii). The allegation of failing to report the arrest is a Grade C violation under § 7B 1. 1(a)(3)(B). Ralph's presentence investigation report for the prior federal crime reflected a Category I criminal history, meaning that if the district court found that Ralph violated the conditions of his supervised release, he would be exposed to a maximum statutory range of two years and an advisory Guidelines range of 12 to 18 months.

At the conclusion of Ralph's revocation hearing, the district court found that Ralph violated both supervised release conditions and sentenced Ralph to 16 months' imprisonment to be served consecutively to his 10-year term of state imprisonment. Additionally, the district court ordered Ralph to serve a 20-month term of supervised release after his release from federal prison.

II. Discussion

Ralph argues that the district court abused its discretion in revoking his supervised release (1) because of inconsistencies between L.R.'s testimony at the revocation hearing and her statements to the DFS worker² and (2) because there was insufficient evidence that he failed to timely report his arrest to the United States Probation Office.

We review the district court's decision to revoke the defendant's supervised release for an abuse of discretion. United States v. Carothers, 337 F.3d 1017, 1019 (8th Cir.2003). We review for clear error the district court's factual findings as to whether a violation...