United States v. Hoffman

• Decision Date: 31 January 2020
• Docket Number: No. CR-19-00693-001-TUC-RM,CR-19-00693-001-TUC-RM
• Citation: 436 F.Supp.3d 1272
• Parties: UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff, v. Natalie Renee HOFFMAN, et al., Defendants.
• Court: U.S. District Court — District of Arizona

436 F.Supp.3d 1272

UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff,

v.Natalie Renee HOFFMAN, et al., Defendants.

No. CR-19-00693-001-TUC-RM

United States District Court, D. Arizona.

Signed January 31, 2020

Filed February 3, 2020

Anna Roberta Wright, Nathaniel Jacob Walters, Assistant U.S. Attorney, U.S. Attorneys Office, Tucson, AZ, for Plaintiff.

Anne Michelle Chapman, Mitchell Stein Carey Chapman PC, Christopher Baird Dupont, Trautman Dupont PLC, Phoenix, AZ, Ephraim A McDowell, Jonathan Hacker, O'Melveny & Myers LLP, Washington, DC, Louis S. Fidel, Piccarreta & Davis PC, Tucson, AZ, for Defendants.

ORDER

Rosemary Márquez, United States District Judge

I. INTRODUCTION

Defendants Natalie Hoffman, Oona Holcomb, Madeline Huse, and Zaachila Orozco-McCormick (collectively "Defendants") appeal from convictions for violations of the regulations governing the Cabeza Prieta National Wildlife Refuge ("the CPNWR" or "the Refuge"). The violations were committed in the course of leaving supplies of food and water in an area of desert wilderness where people frequently die of dehydration and exposure. Defendants, who are volunteers with a charitable organization affiliated with the Unitarian Universalist Church, admit the factual allegations made by the Government. They entered the Refuge without a permit, drove on a restricted-access road, and left food and water for those in need to find. Defendants argue that those actions, taken with the avowed goal of mitigating death and suffering, were sincere exercises of religion and that their prosecution is barred by the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, 42 U.S.C. § 2000bb et seq. ("RFRA" or "the Act"). The Court finds that Defendants demonstrated that their prosecution for this conduct substantially burdens their exercise of sincerely held religious beliefs, and that the Government failed to demonstrate that prosecuting Defendants is the least restrictive means of furthering any compelling governmental interest.

II. FACTUAL BACKGROUND

On August 13, 2017, Defendants entered the CPNWR, drove down a restricted-access road, and left bottles of water and cans of food at several pre-selected locations along foot trails used by people entering the United States unlawfully. Fish and Wildlife ("FWS") Officer Michael West encountered Defendants, who admitted that they did not have a permit to be on the CPNWR. (Reporter's Transcript of Day 1 of Trial ("RT1"), Doc. 170 at 46:20-25, 48:15-18, D. Ariz. Case No. 4:17-mj-00339-BPV.) Officer West directed Defendants to exit the Refuge, which they did. (Id. at 51:23-25.) No citations or notices of violation were issued at that time. (Id. at 82:15-18.)

Defendants are volunteers with "No More Deaths/No Más Muertes," a "faith-based organization" and "ministry of the Unitarian Universalist Church of Tucson." (RT1 at 201:18-19.) A founding volunteer of that organization testified that No More Deaths is a "humanitarian aid organization" that was founded in 1999 "to provide food and water and medical care in the desert." (Id. at 199:18-20.) At that time, increased immigration enforcement in Texas and California began to "funnel the migration pattern right through the Tucson sector of the border," leading to large numbers of unauthorized migrants dying while attempting to cross the remote desert wilderness of southern Arizona on foot. (Id. at 199:20-25.) According to the Pima County Medical Examiner, 2,816 sets of "undocumented border crosser remains" were recovered in Arizona between the years 2000 and 2017.¹ (Trial Exhibit ("Tr. Ex.") 226 at 30). No More Deaths began tracking those deaths and leaving jugs of water in areas where human remains had been recovered. (Id. at 200:2-10.)

The CPNWR, which is in southwestern Arizona, shares a 56-mile border with Sonora, Mexico. (RT1 at 123:12-13.) Visitors are required to obtain permits and sign a hold harmless agreement to enter the Refuge. (Id. at 28:17-19.) The hold harmless agreement describes the Refuge as "one of the most extreme environments in North America," and warns that the area "contains no sources of safe drinking water." (Tr. Ex. 2.) The CPNWR contains numerous trails used by migrants, and, according to the Pima County Medical Examiner, 32 sets of human remains were recovered from the CPNWR in 2017 alone. (Tr. Ex. 133.) Those deaths are despite the presence of "rescue beacons" installed and operated by the United States Border Patrol. (RT1 at 39:15-23.) The month before Defendants entered the CPNWR without a permit, the permit application was amended to specifically prohibit the leaving of "water bottles, water containers, food, food items, food containers, blankets, clothing, footwear, [and] medical supplies" on the CPNWR. (RT1 at 74:1-17; Tr. Ex. 2 ¶13.)

III. PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND

On December 6, 2017, Defendants were charged by criminal information with entering the CPNWR without a permit in violation of 50 C.F.R. § 26.22(b) and abandoning property in violation of 50 C.F.R. § 27.93. (Doc. 1.)² Defendant Hoffman was also charged with driving in a wilderness area in violation of 50 C.F.R. § 35.5. (Id. )

Defendants filed motions to dismiss based on international law (Doc 72), the Administrative Procedures Act (Doc. 70), entrapment by estoppel (Doc. 70), selective enforcement (Doc. 83), and RFRA (Doc 84). Magistrate Judge Bruce G. MacDonald set these motions for a hearing (Doc. 79), but then vacated the hearing and indicated that rulings on the pending motions would issue without argument (Doc. 122). He then recused himself and reassigned the case. (Doc. 132.) His replacement, Magistrate Judge Bernardo P. Velasco, denied all pending motions to dismiss and motions to compel disclosure, but granted Defendants leave to present their RFRA and entrapment by estoppel arguments as defenses at trial. (Doc. 136.)

After a three-day bench trial, Defendants were convicted of all counts. (Docs. 158-161.) The three-page verdict did not analyze Defendants' RFRA defense. (Doc. 166.) Defendants were ordered to pay fines and sentenced to terms of probation, during which they are banned from entering the CPNWR. (Docs. 183, 184, 185, 186.)

Defendants now appeal their judgments of conviction (Docs. 183-186) and "all prior orders encompassed in those judgments" to the United States District Court for the District of Arizona. (Doc. 189.) Because the Court reverses the Defendants' convictions based on their RFRA defense, the Court does not address the prior orders encompassed in Defendants' judgments of conviction, nor the other affirmative defenses raised by Defendants.

IV. STANDARD OF REVIEW

The parties disagree as to the appropriate standard of review. Defendants argue that the denial of RFRA relief is reviewed de novo . (Defendants' Opening Brief ("Def. Op. Br."), Doc. 8 at 14, D. Ariz. Case No. 4:19-cr-00693-RM; Defendants' Reply Brief ("Def. Rep. Br."), Doc. 20 at 9, D. Ariz. Case No. 4:19-cr-00693-RM.) Defendants recognize that factual findings are reviewed on appeal for clear error, but they argue that clear-error review is inapplicable here because the magistrate judge's verdict did not make specific factual findings regarding Defendants' RFRA defense.³ (Def. Rep. Br. at 9 (citing United States v. Prieto-Villa , 910 F.2d 601, 605 (9th Cir. 1990).) The Government similarly recognizes that, following a bench trial resulting in a criminal conviction, conclusions of law are reviewed de novo and findings of fact are reviewed for clear error. (Government's Response Brief ("Gov. Br."), Doc. 16 at 7, D. Ariz. Case No. 4:19-cr-00693-RM.) However, the Government argues that this Court should apply the highly deferential sufficiency-of-evidence standard and ask if, " ‘viewing the evidence in the light most favorable to the prosecution, any rational trier of fact could have found the essential elements of the crime beyond a reasonable doubt.’ " (Id. (quoting Jackson v. Virginia , 443 U.S. 307, 319, 99 S.Ct. 2781, 61 L.Ed.2d 560 (1979).)⁴

A person convicted before a magistrate judge has the right to appeal to the United States District Court. 18 U.S.C. § 3402. "The scope of the appeal is the same as in an appeal to the court of appeals from a judgment entered by a district judge." Fed. R. Crim. P. 58(g)(2)(D). An appellate court reviews a trial court's "conclusions of law following a bench trial de novo and its findings of fact for clear error." Navajo Nation v. U.S. Forest Serv. , 535 F.3d 1058, 1067 (9th Cir. 2008) (en banc) (citing Lentini v. California Ctr. for the Arts, Escondido , 370 F.3d 837, 843 (9th Cir. 2004) ). The Ninth Circuit has indicated that "[w]hether application of a federal law violates RFRA is a question of statutory construction for the court" that is reviewed de novo , United States v. Vasquez-Ramos , 531 F.3d 987, 990 (9th Cir. 2008), although "any findings of ‘historical fact’ underlying" the trial court's conclusions are reviewed for clear error, Christie , 825 F.3d at 1056.

V. DISCUSSION

RFRA provides "very broad protection for religious liberty" by exempting religious believers from laws that substantially burden the exercise of their religious beliefs. Burwell v. Hobby Lobby Stores, Inc. , 573 U.S. 682, 693, 134 S.Ct. 2751, 189 L.Ed.2d 675 (2014). The Government must provide such an exemption unless the application of the law to the believer is the "least restrictive means" of furthering a "compelling government interest." 42 U.S.C. § 2000bb-1(b). A RFRA claim may be brought as an affirmative defense to criminal charges. United States v. Christie , 825 F.3d 1048, 1065 (9th Cir. 2016).

The Act was passed after the Supreme Court held—reversing prior case law—that the Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment "does not relieve an individual of the obligation to comply with a valid and neutral law of general applicability." See Employment Div. v. Smith, 494 U.S. 872, 879, 110 S.Ct. 1595, 108 L.Ed.2d 876 (1990) (internal quotation marks omitted). Congress enacted RFRA in response, seeking to "restore" religious...