United States v. Newhouse
| Decision Date | 30 January 2013 |
| Docket Number | No. CR11–3030–MWB.,CR11–3030–MWB. |
| Citation | 919 F.Supp.2d 955 |
| Parties | UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff, v. Lori NEWHOUSE, Defendant. |
| Court | U.S. District Court — Northern District of Iowa |
OPINION TEXT STARTS HERE
Shawn Stephen Wehde, U.S. Attorney's Office, Sioux City, IA, for Plaintiff.
Mary C. Gryva, Frank & Gryva, PC, Omaha, NE, James F. Whalen, Federal Public Defender, Des Moines, IA, Max Samuel Wolson, Federal Public Defenders Office, Robert A. Wichser, Federal Public Defender, Sioux City, IA, for Defendant.
SENTENCING OPINION AND STATEMENT OF REASONS PURSUANT TO 18 U.S.C. § 3553(c)
Does the grid and bear it scheme of the U.S. Sentencing Guideline Career Offender recidivist enhancement, § 4B1.1, raise a specter of aperiodic, irrational, and arbitrary sentencing guideline ranges in some cases? 1 This issue is squarely raised by Lori Ann Newhouse, a low-level pill smurfer, “[a] person who busily goes from store to store acquiring pseudoephedrine pills for a meth cook, usually in exchange for finished product.” 2 Not only is Newhouse a mere pill smurfer, she is truly a “one day” Career Offender because her two prior drug predicate offenses arose out of a single police raid of a Motel 6 room over a decade ago, on February 26, 2002, in Altoona, Iowa, when Newhouse was just 22 years old. The police found Newhouse and three others in the motel room. Newhouse was charged in state court and pled guilty to possession with intent to deliver 3.29 grams of methamphetamine and 14.72 grams of psilocybin mushrooms. She was sentenced to probation on both charges, but on different days, by Chief Judge ...
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...range “because of the inequities of the career offender provisions.” Valdez Memo. ¶ 6, at 3 (citing United States v. Newhouse, 919 F.Supp.2d 955 (N.D.Iowa 2013) (Bennett, J.)(attached as Doc. 72–1)). Last, Valdez “asserts that a sixty-month sentence, the statutory minimum, would suffice to ......
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