United States v. Semenza, CR 85-18-BU-CCL.

• Decision Date: 19 September 1986
• Docket Number: No. CR 85-18-BU-CCL.,CR 85-18-BU-CCL.
• Citation: 644 F. Supp. 780
• Parties: UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff, v. Larry D. SEMENZA, Defendant.
• Court: U.S. District Court — District of Montana

644 F. Supp. 780

UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff, v. Larry D. SEMENZA, Defendant.

No. CR 85-18-BU-CCL.

United States District Court, D. Montana, Butte Division.

September 19, 1986.

Kris McLean, Asst. U.S. Atty., Butte, Mont., for plaintiff.

K. Dale Schwanke, Jardine, Stephenson, Blewett & Weaver, Great Falls, Mont., for defendant.

MEMORANDUM OPINION

LOVELL, District Judge.

Defendant was charged with two counts of allowing his cattle to trespass on forest lands, a violation of 36 C.F.R. § 261.7(a) and § 261.1(b). He waived jury trial and was tried to the court on May 6-7, 1986. After the close of the evidence, the Court received briefs from the parties, took the matter under advisement, and subsequently found the defendant guilty on both counts. A motion for new trial was denied, and the defendant came on for sentencing on September 15, 1986. Defendant was fined $250 on each count. This memorandum is issued in conjunction with the Court's imposition of sentence and remarks made to counsel at the sentencing hearing.

At the outset of this trial, the government announced that it was bringing this criminal prosecution for the purpose of collecting a debt owed by defendant to the United States for injuries caused to forest lands by defendant's cattle. I told government counsel that a criminal prosecution was not the proper procedure to recover on a civil debt. I refused to take evidence on the claimed damages at the time of trial, although I did give the United States leave to reraise the issue of restitution later if defendant were convicted.

At the sentencing hearing, the United States presented evidence of damages in excess of $9,000 (attributed to the two counts of trespass by defendant's cattle), and requested the Court to order incarceration and condition probation upon payment of restitution by defendant. Defendant denied causing the damages attributed to him, and the evidence was conflicting. Defendant correctly argued that the record shows there were cattle other than his in the plantation where the damages accrued. Also, defendant attempted to prove by videotape the presence of an elk herd and a substantial number of deer in the vicinity of the plantation which could have contributed to the damage. The Court found that the conflicting evidence presented a record less than satisfactory to warrant the restitution demanded by the government and declined to impose restitution.¹

More significant than the inconclusiveness of the evidence to support restitution, is the presence of a very important principle which appears to be at issue here.

When I first began the practice of law, Montana had a statute which made it a crime for a private citizen to attempt to compel payment of a civil debt by threat of criminal prosecution. That crime was then called "extortion." In later years, the statute was replaced with a different one charging a crime which was referred to as "intimidation." These harsh terms are reflective of the antagonism in our legal history to availing oneself of criminal prosecution by the sovereign to collect a civil debt. Indeed, debtors prisons were a motivating factor in emigration from England by our original colonists. See also 28 U.S.C. § 2007.

The principle involved here is that no private person, nor the sovereign itself, ought to be allowed to conduct a criminal prosecution for the only purpose of securing a conviction in order to condition probation upon payment of a monetary debt. This doesn't mean that the court ought not, in a proper case and under proper circumstances, order restitution as an incident to the criminal conviction. Certainly victims of crime are entitled to have the court carefully consider such...