United States v. Cabrera-Rivera
Opinion of the Court
Appellant Edwin Cabrera-Rivera ("Cabrera") was charged in a two-count indictment with production and possession of child pornography. In a deal with the government, he agreed to plead guilty to the possession count -- an offense with no mandatory minimum sentence -- and the government agreed to dismiss the production count -- an offense with a mandatory fifteen-year term of imprisonment. As part of the deal, the parties agreed to recommend a term of 108 months of imprisonment. Cabrera also agreed to waive his right to appeal any sentence consistent with the parties' recommendation. The district court adopted the joint recommendation and sentenced Cabrera to the 108-month term. The court also sentenced Cabrera to a 144-month term of supervised release with multiple conditions.
Cabrera now challenges the length of his terms of imprisonment and supervised release and several of the supervised release conditions, contending that his appeal waiver was not made knowingly and voluntarily, or, in the alternative, that enforcing the waiver would result in a miscarriage of justice. After considering these arguments, we dismiss Cabrera's appeal of his terms of imprisonment and supervised release, as well as his objections to most of the supervised release conditions. The one exception is for a condition that, by its terms, prevents Cabrera from having any contact with his minor children without approval of a probation officer. Thus stated, the condition implicates Cabrera's fundamental constitutional interest in his relationship with his children, and it was imposed without any explanation of its necessity. We vacate that condition and direct the district court to reconsider it on remand.
I.
Because Cabrera's conviction and sentence followed the entry of a guilty plea, we draw the facts from the change-of-plea colloquy and the uncontested portions of the amended Presentence Investigation Report ("PSR"). See United States v. Vélez-Luciano,
In January 2013, Department of Homeland Security agents received information that Cabrera had engaged in sexually explicit communications with Doe. The agents subsequently interviewed Doe and learned that Cabrera had asked Doe to send him approximately fifty-eight sexually explicit photos of herself. The agents interviewed Cabrera, who admitted that he had requested the photos. The government then lawfully searched two cellphones owned by Cabrera and found sexually explicit photos of Doe.
Cabrera subsequently was indicted on one count of producing child pornography, in violation of
At a change-of-plea hearing before a magistrate judge, the government reviewed the terms of the plea agreement, all of which Cabrera said he understood. During the colloquy, however, the court questioned the provision stating that Cabrera's term of supervised release would be "not more than three (3) years." After research by the prosecutor and defense counsel -- who looked up the relevant statutes on their cellphones -- all agreed that, pursuant to
Okay, Mr. Cabrera, that's what the law says. There is nothing your lawyer can do about it. I just need to make sure that you understand a possible maximum sentence and part of the maximum sentence could be a term of supervised release of up to life. Do you understand that?
Cabrera replied, "Yes."
After advising Cabrera that the sentencing judge would have considerable discretion in determining his sentence, the magistrate judge went on to explain the waiver of appeal provision: "your plea agreement contains a waiver of appeal in which you give up your right to appeal both the judgment and the sentence if the court accepts your plea agreement and sentences you according to its terms, conditions and recommendations. Do you know that?" Again, Cabrera responded, "Yes."
Upon completing the change-of-plea colloquy, the magistrate judge found that Cabrera was competent to plead guilty, he was aware of the nature of the charged conduct and the impact of pleading guilty, and his plea was knowing and voluntary.
*20Hence, the magistrate judge recommended that the district court accept Cabrera's plea.
In its initial PSR, the Probation Office recommended a pair of two-point enhancements not contemplated by the plea agreement -- one for conduct involving the commission of a sexual act or sexual contact, pursuant to U.S.S.G. § 2G2.1(b)(2)(A), and one for the use of a computer, pursuant to U.S.S.G. § 2G2.1(b)(6)(B). Cabrera objected to the enhancement for sexual contact, and an amended PSR was issued that omitted it. The amended PSR determined Cabrera's guideline sentencing range ("GSR") to be 108-120 months, based on a total offense level of 31 and a Criminal History Category ("CHC") of I. The amended PSR also recommended fifteen special conditions of supervised release. Cabrera did not object to any of them.
At sentencing in February 2015, defense counsel agreed with the guidelines calculation set out in the amended PSR and informed the court that she had discussed the report with Cabrera. After hearing from Cabrera, Doe, and Doe's mother, the court explained the factors specified by
I hope not to be committing a mistake here. But at this time I will go with the recommendation of the government within the plea agreement. I find that still 9 years is a significant period of time and I hope that you use the same to continue reflecting on what you did. For you to realize that it doesn't matter whether the woman is the age of consent but you are not to engage in the type of actions that you engage. You are not to take advantage of persons with learning disabilities, because that is still another enhancement.
Regarding Cabrera's supervised release term, the court stated:
[T]he period of supervised release will be a significant one. In essence it will get to a point where if you do it right, if you restructure your life, if you don't give the Probation Officer any reason to believe that you are engaging in any similar action or in any other type of illegal action they will place you in minimal supervision. But if you set a different course in life, then they will be able to act.
Accordingly, the court sentenced Cabrera to a 108-month term of imprisonment and a 144-month term of supervised release. Then, without further explanation, the court imposed virtually all of the supervised release conditions included in the amended PSR, along with a few others. The court also reminded Cabrera that, because he had "stipulated" to the sentence imposed, the waiver of appeal provision in the plea agreement "has been triggered." Cabrera timely appealed.
II.
Cabrera seeks review of his sentence on two grounds. First, he argues that his appeal waiver should not be enforced because it was not made knowingly and voluntarily. Second, he argues that, even if *21the appeal waiver is valid, we should disregard it and vacate his sentence and six conditions of supervised release to prevent a miscarriage of justice.
To evaluate the enforceability of a defendant's waiver of appeal, we consider three questions: (1) was the waiver's scope clearly delineated? (2) did the district court specifically inquire about the waiver of appellate rights? and (3) would denial of those rights constitute a miscarriage of justice? See United States v. Del Valle-Cruz,
A. Knowing and Voluntary
The Waiver of Appeal provision in Cabrera's plea agreement states that "[t]he Defendant knowingly and voluntarily waives the right to appeal the judgment and sentence in this case, provided that the defendant is sentenced in accordance with the terms and conditions set forth in the Sentence Recommendation provisions of this Plea Agreement." The "Sentence Recommendation" provision states, in relevant part: "The parties agree to recommend a term of imprisonment of one hundred and eight (108) months , should the defendant be a CHC of I, II or III."
Cabrera was sentenced to the specified 108-month term, and both the magistrate judge and district court reviewed the waiver with him. Hence, the government argues, this clearly stated appellate waiver was plainly triggered. Cabrera, however, asserts that he understood the agreement differently. In his view, "108 months would be the upper limit of any possible total sentence he might receive, not the time he had actually agreed to serve in prison." (Emphasis added.) That is, Cabrera maintains that the combined period of incarceration and supervised release comprise his "sentence," and the waiver of appeal is thus inoperative because his total sentence -- which included 144 months of supervised release -- exceeded the agreed-upon 108 months. Cabrera premises this argument on well-established First Circuit precedent holding that the word "sentence" in a plea agreement "encompasses every component of the sentence," including imprisonment, supervised release, and any attendant conditions. United States v. Santiago,
There are two related problems with this argument. First, the Sentence Recommendation provision explicitly provided for "a term of imprisonment of one hundred and eight (108) months," not a total "sentence" of that length. (Emphasis added; other emphasis deleted.) Second, our case law establishes that a defendant's waiver of the right to appeal his sentence covers the period of supervised release and any attendant conditions regardless of whether those post-incarceration penalties are expressly referenced in the plea agreement. See id.; see also, e.g., Vélez-Luciano,
That is not to say, however, that Cabrera's argument is unreasonable. If, *22under our precedent, a "sentence" consists of both incarceration and supervised release, one may logically argue that a defendant who receives a term of supervised release that is not included in a "Sentence Recommendation" has not been "sentenced in accordance with the terms and conditions set forth in the Sentence Recommendation provisions of [his] plea agreement." But even if that argument could fairly be raised under our caselaw where a term of supervised release is entirely discretionary,
Cabrera resists this reasoning by challenging the adequacy of the plea colloquy concerning his exposure to a mandated term of supervised release. He contends that "the record is unclear about whether [he] fully understood the consequences of [his] guilty plea," noting that even his attorney was confused. To be sure, as described above, there was initial uncertainty about whether the applicable term of supervised release was capped at three years or would be at least five years. Once the court and counsel determined that the three-year maximum stated in the plea agreement was wrong, the only explanation of the error was given to Cabrera by his attorney off the record. The magistrate *23judge then told Cabrera that "[t]here is nothing your lawyer can do about it."
If this were the entire colloquy, we would be concerned about what Cabrera's attorney told him and whether Cabrera understood that he was giving up his right to appeal a "sentence" that would include at least five years of supervised release in addition to the 108-month term of imprisonment.
Under our precedent on the scope of sentencing appeal waivers, this colloquy was sufficient to satisfy Teeter's inquiry requirement. The magistrate judge's explanation of the appeal waiver's consequences was "specific enough to confirm the defendant's understanding of the waiver and [his] acquiescence in the relinquishment of rights that it betokens." Teeter,
Accordingly, Cabrera may challenge his sentence, including the term and conditions of supervised release, only if he can show that his case falls within the rare exception carved out by the final prong of the Teeter test: that enforcement of the waiver would work a miscarriage of justice.
B. Miscarriage of Justice
In Teeter, we cautioned that, because appellate waivers "are made before any manifestation of sentencing error emerges, appellate courts must remain free to grant relief from them in egregious cases."
Still, the miscarriage-of-justice exception is to be applied "sparingly and without undue generosity." Sotirion,
1. Terms of Imprisonment and Supervised Release
Cabrera makes a threshold argument that he should not be sentenced as a "typical sexual offender" because his relationship with Doe was "consensual and voluntary." Under Puerto Rico law, a consensual sexual relationship with Doe would have been lawful. Moreover, Cabrera emphasizes that there is no evidence of his "predatory exploitation" of Doe. Indeed, although the government maintains that Cabrera's "conduct was serious and involved the sexual exploitation of a minor," including physical sexual conduct (which Cabrera denies), it concedes that Doe "willingly provided [Cabrera] with the ... images." In short, Cabrera argues that his within-guidelines sentence is unduly harsh given his specific conduct -- what he calls "consensual sexting" -- and thus enforcing the waiver of appeal would effect a miscarriage of justice.
We disagree. A claim that an otherwise lawful, within-guidelines sentence is excessive asserts just the sort of "garden-variety" error that does not surmount the miscarriage-of-justice hurdle. See, e.g., Santiago,
Cabrera's objection to his term of supervised release likewise targets the sort of garden-variety error that need not be reviewed on appeal to avoid a miscarriage of justice. He asserts, with virtually no elaboration, that the district court gave an inadequate justification for picking the specific term that it did, but he does not explain why a twelve-year term is improper. Although the district court's remarks were brief, the court did reveal why it chose "a significant" period of time:
*25[I]f you do it right, if you restructure your life, if you don't give the Probation Officer any reason to believe that you are engaging in any similar action or in any other type of illegal action they will place you in minimal supervision. But if you set a different course in life, then they will be able to act.
Moreover, lengthy terms of supervised release for sexual-misconduct crimes are not uncommon. See, e.g., Vélez-Luciano,
2. Supervised Release Conditions
We thus are left with only Cabrera's challenge to the following six of the twenty-three imposed conditions of supervised release
[1] The defendant shall not associate with codefendants, individuals with whom ... defendant has previously[ ] traded illicit[ ] material, a family member or friend under Criminal Justice supervision for a sex crime or identified past victim unless in a therapeutic setting and with the prior approval of the Probation Officer.
[2] The defendant shall have no personal contact with the victim and or minors under the age of 18 through mail, letters, telephone communication, audio or visual computer or electronic devices, visit social networking sights [sic] or third parties unless approved in advance by the Probation Officer. The only exception in this condition relies on the incidental contact in normal life with minors and those that relate to his relatives.
[3] The defendant shall not reside, be in the company, date or socialize by himself with a child or children below the age of 18 unless previously approved by the Probation Officer and after a third party risk has been duly assigned.
[4] The defendant shall not engage in a specified occupation, business or profession bearing a reasonable relationship to the conduct constituting the offense. Specifically the defendant shall not work with children under the age of 18 or hold a job that gives him authority over potential victims, gives him access to vulnerable populations or places him in settings in school or playgrounds. Any employment must be approved in advance by the Probation Officer who will make an assessment of the job placement and set employment restrictions if warranted based on the sex offender management procedure manual.
[5] The defendant shall not participate in any volunteer activity or be involved in any children or youth organization or *26any group that would bring him in close contact with a child or children under the age of 18 unless prior approval of the Probation Officer.
[6] The defendant shall stay at his approved residence every night and not sleep or stay overnight anywhere else without prior approval from the probation office.
The government concedes that the court did not explain its reasons for imposing these six conditions. Indeed, based on our review of the sentencing transcript, the court provided no specific explanation for any of the imposed conditions of supervised release, and instead merely read aloud the list of conditions largely as proposed in the PSR. Nevertheless, the government contends that the rationale for the conditions is apparent from the record. Moreover, the government presses its argument that Cabrera's appeal waiver should operate to bar his challenge to all of these condition. Hence, we look to the record to determine whether the court's reasoning can be inferred as to each condition, keeping in mind that Cabrera's appeal waiver bars appellate review of all but the most egregiously unjustified conditions. See, e.g., Del Valle-Cruz,
As to the first condition -- which restricts Cabrera's contact with "codefendants, individuals with whom ... [Cabrera] has previously[ ] traded illicit[ ] material," persons "under Criminal Justice supervision for a sex crime," or Doe -- Cabrera makes only a perfunctory attempt to explain why upholding it would result in a miscarriage of justice, claiming that this condition should not apply to him because he never engaged in "illicit trading" of child pornography, even if he did show the illicit pictures to his coworkers. Arguing that a boilerplate condition does not apply precisely to his conduct does not explain why enforcing the condition would amount to a miscarriage of justice, especially when unlawfully displaying images to others is conduct that Cabrera acknowledges doing.
As to the second, fourth, and fifth conditions -- restricting Cabrera's communication, employment, and volunteer activities with minors, respectively -- we find no error sufficient to support a miscarriage-of-justice finding. As we explained in United States v. Pabon, associational restrictions "operate to protect the public, especially children, from the defendant, as well as to promote the defendant's rehabilitation."
*27Del Valle-Cruz,
As to the sixth condition -- which requires Cabrera to "stay at his approved residence every night" unless he has "prior approval from the probation office" -- we similarly reject the miscarriage-of-justice contention. Although the court erred by providing no reasoning for its decision, "we cannot say it was 'an increment of error more glaring than routine reversible error.' " Del Valle-Cruz,
Cabrera's sole remaining challenge is to the third condition of supervised release. To the extent that this condition limits his ability to "reside, be in the company, date or socialize by himself with" minors generally, we find no miscarriage of justice for the same reasons we have upheld the appeal waiver with respect to the other associational conditions. Cabrera argues, however, that this condition is overbroad because, unlike condition two, which makes an exception for communication with family members, condition three makes no exception for Cabrera's own children -- a son and a daughter who will still be minors when Cabrera completes his 108-month sentence. Cabrera contends that this condition impermissibly restricts his constitutional right to raise his children and, particularly because the district court gave no reasons for imposing it, barring an appellate challenge would effect a miscarriage of justice.
We agree that, in this one respect, Cabrera meets the stringent criteria for relief under the miscarriage-of-justice exception. In Del Valle-Cruz, we stated that a waiver of appeal may be disregarded "when an error of significant or constitutional dimension is clear, and where there is 'little prejudice to the government should we take up the merits of [the defendant's] appeal.' "
So too here. As in Del Valle-Cruz, the error is manifest: the district court imposed condition three, restricting Cabrera's relationship with his children, without any explanation, despite the clear precedent holding that "a district court is required to provide a reasoned and case-specific explanation for the sentence it imposes." United States v. Gilman,
Although in some circumstances there would be reason to distinguish between a defendant's son and daughter in evaluating the asserted injustice of enforcing an appellate waiver for the associational restriction imposed by condition three, see, e.g., Pabon,
The dissent contends that our decision protects the defendant's rights by "ignoring the equal rights of [Cabrera's] wife and children." To the contrary, we agree that the wellbeing of Cabrera's family members is a relevant consideration for the district court in evaluating whether to limit Cabrera's constitutional right to associate with his children. We hold only that a miscarriage of justice would result if we denied Cabrera an opportunity to challenge that significant, yet unexplained, limitation -- and that, as discussed infra, the condition cannot be upheld absent explanation.
*29In arguing that the record reveals the district court's rationale for condition three, our dissenting colleague points to the court's "concern[ ] about the risk of illegal actions by the defendant while on supervised release" and the court's warnings to Cabrera not to repeat "the type of actions in which he engaged" or to take retaliatory action against Doe's family. The court did not, however, articulate concerns or warnings about Cabrera's interactions with his children. Hence, the concerns it expressed do not explain the constitutional limitation imposed by the condition.
Nor is the court's rationale inferable from the record. The dissent's detailed recounting of the defendant's activities with Doe -- a female of consenting age, and not a family member -- does not demonstrate a need to interfere with Cabrera's constitutionally protected relationship with his own offspring. The court did not reject out-of-hand the following depiction of Cabrera's conduct, which was offered by defense counsel:
[W]e are not here to pass judgment on moral values. Nevertheless he was in a relationship, he began a relationship with this young woman. He was hiding that relationship from his wife. And he incurred in the acts that the Court has before her. But this is not one of these people who prays on young women for the purpose of committing sexual offenses. This is just one of those cases of misjudgment of what the law is in relation to relationships with older young people and younger adults.
The court itself expressly recognized the positive aspects of Cabrera's background, noting that he "has had a stable relationship for the past six years," is a first-time offender, maintained stable employment, and had letters from relatives and neighbors attesting to his positive character. Our point, simply put, is that the district court's assessment of the circumstances, not ours, determines the validity of condition three. And given the facts as depicted by the court, the need for such a constitutionally significant limitation is not apparent.
Recognizing the relevance of our decision in Del Valle-Cruz to this case, the dissent attempts to distinguish the facts with an assertion that Cabrera was more of a danger to his son and daughter than the defendant in Del Valle-Cruz was to his children. As our discussion below reveals, the record before us does not support that conclusion. Our colleague further suggests that reliance on Del Valle-Cruz is inapt where a defendant is sentenced for an actual sex offense rather than for failing to register as a sex offender. Although that distinction is certainly relevant when we consider a challenge to a condition restricting parental rights, we have never taken such a categorical approach. Rather, as reflected in the discussion of our caselaw in the next section, our inquiry relies on case-by-case scrutiny of individual circumstances.
Accordingly, we exercise our discretion to bypass the appeal waiver with respect to condition three and proceed to the merits of Cabrera's challenge.
C. Cabrera's Contact with His Children.
Cabrera's failure to object to condition three at sentencing means our review is only for plain error. See Vélez-Luciano,
None of our prior cases addressing conditions of supervised release that restrict parental rights is a perfect match for Cabrera's circumstances. As we shall describe, the defendants' criminal activities differ considerably from case to case, and the challenged conditions most often were imposed when the defendant had failed to register as a sex offender rather than for the sexual misconduct itself. The lapse in time between the sexual misconduct and the imposition of the challenged conditions thus also varies. Nonetheless, taken as a whole, our precedent provides relevant guidance for the plain error inquiry here.
We begin by elaborating on our analysis in Del Valle-Cruz. As recounted above, we disregarded the defendant's waiver of appeal because the unexplained imposition of conditions "prohibiting [the defendant] from having personal contact with, and living with, any minor child" constituted a miscarriage of justice when applied to the defendant's own children.
*31
Subsequently, in Vélez-Luciano, we faced a challenge to release conditions restricting contact with minors by a defendant who, like Cabrera, had pled guilty to possession of child pornography and waived his right to appeal. See
*32More recently, in Pabon, we rejected a defendant's challenge "that the district court failed to make sufficient findings justifying the restrictions on association with his minor daughter."
In Fey, another SORNA failure-to-register case, we found plain error where the district court imposed, without explanation, a supervised release condition similar to the one Cabrera challenges here.
We can readily draw from this precedent the conclusion that condition three's unexplained prohibition on Cabrera's contact with his son clears the plain error hurdle. As reflected in our discussion above, we repeatedly have expressed concern about conditions that limit contact with male children when the defendant's offense involved no inappropriate conduct with males. Although the cited decisions all were issued after Cabrera's sentencing in February 2015, both the parental liberty *33interest at stake and the requirement to justify conditions of supervised release were well established by that time. See Quilloin,
The impropriety of the summary prohibition on contact between Cabrera and his daughter, subject to Probation Office approval, is arguably less obvious. Cabrera's criminal activity did involve a young female. In addition, the sentencing condition he challenges was imposed for the sexual misconduct crime itself and not -- as in most of the cases above -- for a SORNA crime that occurred years after the sexual misconduct. On the facts before us, however, the unexplained bar against Cabrera's contact with his daughter is also troubling. Unlike the defendant's unlawful activity in Pabon, where we rejected a claim of plain error, Cabrera's crime did not involve a girl below the applicable age of consent and did not take place at a domestic partner's home. See
As we explained in both Del Valle-Cruz and Fey, because impairment of "a defendant's relationship with his child involve[s] a very significant deprivation of liberty, [it] require[s] a greater justification." Del Valle-Cruz,
III.
For the reasons given above, we dismiss Cabrera's appeal of his terms of imprisonment and supervised release, and of the first, second, fourth, fifth, and sixth conditions of supervised release. We vacate the third condition of supervised release, and remand to the district court for reconsideration of that condition.
So ordered.
During the change-of-plea hearing, this language, without our emphasis added, was handwritten as a correction on the plea agreement, and the change appears to be initialed by Cabrera.
The court stated that it had considered the following factors: (1) Cabrera's age and tenth-grade education; (2) that he was in a long-term relationship and has two young children; (3) his status as a first-time offender; (4) his use of alcohol; (5) his stable employment and good conduct while at work; (6) letters of support from relatives, in-laws, and neighbors; (7) that he knew the victim was a minor; (8) that he had been in contact with the victim since 2012 and knew she was receiving psychological therapy; (9) that he taught the victim how to send the sexually explicit images; (10) that he admitted showing the images to his co-workers and that a co-worker had told him the images could lead to trouble; and (11) that he severely injured the victim's brother during a fight with her relatives.
Where the decision to impose supervised release is left to the district court's discretion, and the parties recommend only a term of imprisonment, a defendant could plausibly contend that, under ordinary contract principles, a sentence that includes a term of supervised release is not "in accordance with" a "Sentence Recommendation" proposing only a term of imprisonment. However, where a statute sets a mandatory minimum term of supervised release, that statutory minimum is unavoidably incorporated within a plea agreement whether or not expressly stated in the Sentence Recommendation.
Our precedent does not recognize this discretionary vs. mandatory difference, and the broad language in our cases poses a possible barrier to an appellant seeking to rely on such a distinction. However, as Cabrera points out, the plea agreements in a number of our principal cases on appellate sentencing waivers specified that the defendant faced a mandatory minimum five-year term of supervised release. Hence, we would have had no occasion in those cases to confront any possible differences between discretionary and mandatory terms of supervised release. See Vélez-Luciano,
The dissent states that we have incorrectly suggested that "a waiver of appeal may not extend to a term of supervised release where that term is left to the court's discretion by the plea agreement." Dissent, at n.2. Yet, the term (or duration) of supervised release is a statutory element of a sentence for which the parties may, and sometimes do, negotiate. Accordingly, contract principles reasonably could be applied to such negotiated terms. By contrast, the conditions of supervised release are neither governed by statute nor included in the Sentence Recommendation provision of plea agreements. We have no need to consider here the impact on challenges to conditions of release if a waiver of appeal is determined not to bar appeal of the supervised release term.
Although certain of Cabrera's contentions in challenging the knowing and voluntary nature of his waiver of appeal appear to implicate his acceptance of the plea agreement itself, Cabrera emphatically disclaims any intention to challenge the agreement as a whole. Absent the plea deal, Cabrera could have faced a fifteen-year mandatory minimum sentence on the count charging him with producing child pornography. See
The district court did not number the conditions of supervised release, and we have added numbers here only for ease of reference. We note that, in some instances, the court divided into several separate conditions a single, multi-part recommendation contained in the PSR. Hence, the fifteen numbered conditions listed in the PSR roughly correlate with twenty of the conditions articulated by the court at the sentencing hearing. The additional three conditions prohibited Cabrera from committing another crime or unlawfully possessing controlled substances (requirements noted in the PSR separately from the recommended conditions), and required him to "participate in an approved in-patient or out-patient mental health treatment program."
Our dissenting colleague implies that, instead of deciding the miscarriage-of-justice question, we should remand for clarification on whether the district court meant to include Cabrera's own children within the scope of condition three. In our view, there is no lack of clarity in the condition as announced by the court. In stark contrast to condition two, condition three contains no exception for Cabrera's children. Given that the condition as imposed clearly restricts a fundamental liberty interest, see infra, we can see no justification for avoiding the miscarriage-of-justice inquiry.
In response to an inquiry from the panel, the parties obtained information from the United States Probation Office for the District of Puerto Rico on the use of this condition in that jurisdiction. Probation Officer Charlette Agostini reported that "[t]his special condition is imposed in cases involving sex offenses against minors." She stated that "[t]he courts routinely review each case individually and determine which conditions reasonably apply given the particularity of each case." An on-the-record explanation of the court's reasoning is necessary, however, to confirm that such an assessment took place and to "enable[ ] appellate review." Perazza-Mercado,
We acknowledge the artificiality of deciding that a challenge to a supervised release condition is sufficiently persuasive to meet the miscarriage-of-justice standard, and then separately analyzing the merits of the challenge, when the arguments made for a miscarriage of justice are indistinguishable from the arguments made on the merits. Indeed, it is difficult to imagine any argument that could vault the exceptionally high hurdle imposed by the miscarriage-of-justice standard only to stumble on abuse-of-discretion or plain-error review. See Vélez-Luciano,
Notwithstanding our court's recognition of uncertainty about whether the plain error and miscarriage-of-justice standards fully overlap, and the importance of the right at stake here, the dissent takes the unreasonable position that Cabrera is not entitled to plain error review. In justifying that position, the dissent dismisses as irrelevant an important difference between this case and Pabon. In Pabon, we did not address the miscarriage-of-justice standard, and the opinion does not describe the arguments, if any, that the defendant offered on that subject. By contrast, in presenting his miscarriage-of-justice argument, Cabrera has, in effect, argued each element of the plain error test, and we have addressed them. See United States v. Garay-Sierra,
SORNA defines "sex offender" as "an individual who was convicted of a sex offense," and provides, inter alia, that "[a] sex offender shall register, and keep the registration current, in each jurisdiction where the offender resides, where the offender is an employee, and where the offender is a student."
The dissent fails to adhere to this precedent in concluding that the district court, without explanation, can place a probation officer between Cabrera and his children. Under Del Valle-Cruz, such an intrusion into the parental relationship, absent explanation from the district court, is unsupportable. The case highlighted by the dissent, United States v. Mercado,
In Vélez-Luciano, the defendant did not raise the constitutional implications of restricting contact with his children until oral argument, and we therefore deemed the argument waived.
Pabon had preserved some of his challenges to the associational conditions, and we reviewed those for abuse-of-discretion. See
The court found that the conditions were necessary in order to keep the public safe, and especially to protect minors from Pabon's violent inclinations. It explained that Pabon had "demons" he needed to deal with, a history of beating up women that needed to be addressed, and an inability to control his anger that made him a potential danger to children.
The dissent suggests that we have provided a false contrast with respect to violence, pointing to the fight between Cabrera and Doe's brother that left the brother severely injured. The facts surrounding that encounter are disputed, with Cabrera maintaining that he acted in self-defense. At the sentencing hearing, defense counsel reported that Cabrera also was wounded and received treatment at a hospital. Although the district court found the severity of the brother's injuries "troublesome," it also noted "that probably there could be an argument of self defense." Whatever the full story, this isolated incident is a far cry from Pabon's "history of beating up women" and "inability to control his anger."
The dissent suggests that condition three is an appropriate protection for Cabrera's daughter because she will turn sixteen -- Doe's age when Cabrera engaged in sexually explicit communications with her -- during Cabrera's supervised release term. However, given the obvious differences in the two relationships, it is not apparent how Cabrera's interactions with Doe support limiting his parental rights.
Section 3583(d) states, in pertinent part, that the court may order any "condition it considers to be appropriate" to the extent that the condition, inter alia, "involves no greater deprivation of liberty than is reasonably necessary for the purposes set forth in section 3553(a)(2)(B), (a)(2)(C), and (a)(2)(D)." Those subsections of § 3553(a)(2) refer to
the need for the sentence imposed ...
(B) to afford adequate deterrence to criminal conduct;
(C) to protect the public from further crimes of the defendant; and
(D) to provide the defendant with needed educational or vocational training, medical care, or other correctional treatment in the most effective manner[.]
Although we do not minimize the burdens on trial judges in this circuit, who often have exceptionally heavy criminal dockets, we note a continuing pattern of constitutionally significant associational conditions imposed with little or no explanation. We urge district courts to alter that practice by giving "reasoned and case-specific explanation[s]" for the conditions they impose. Perazza-Mercado,
Concurring Opinion
I join the court's opinion but write separately to express my concern with the path that this Court's precedents have taken with regard to enforcing appellate waivers when the district court imposes a sentence with a term of supervised release exceeding that which was expressly contemplated in the "Sentencing Recommendation" provision of a plea agreement. Where the parties specifically included some terms of a "sentence" -- which this Court has held includes any period of incarceration and any subsequent term of supervised release, Santiago,
More simply put, when a defendant is sentenced to a term of supervised release beyond that for which he has bargained, the waiver of appeal provision of the plea agreement should not be triggered. Moving forward, I encourage parties to a plea agreement to clearly delineate the terms of the "sentence" that they seek the district court to impose. Should the parties wish to leave the duration of a term of supervised release to the discretion of the district court, it would not be overly burdensome for them to state as much in their proposed sentencing recommendation.
As the court's opinion has aptly and correctly noted, when facing a mandatory minimum term of supervised release, the parties cannot contractually void that statutory minimum by failing to reference it in the sentencing recommendation of a plea agreement. In such cases, a term of supervised release is necessarily incorporated into the plea agreement and is precluded from appeal by an enforceable appellate waiver. See Rojas,
Dissenting Opinion
With great respect for my colleagues in the majority, I fear this opinion will make it more difficult for courts to impose conditions of supervised release meant to protect the families, and particularly the minor daughters, of convicted sex offenders (who here had preyed on a minor female) and to monitor such offenders better. The district court was clearly worried that Cabrera would engage in illegal activities with minors while out on supervised release, and with good reason given the facts of this case. And while the majority says it wishes to protect the defendant's rights, it does so by ignoring the equal rights of his wife and children.
I agree that the length of the sentence must be affirmed but strongly disagree that the imposition of condition three is a "miscarriage of justice" under United States v. Teeter,
The majority, in my view, departs from binding circuit law in every step of its miscarriage analysis. The majority then relies on waived and meritless arguments to find that the imposition of condition three was plain error.
A. Miscarriage of Justice
In my view, the majority opinion is barred by circuit precedent from concluding that a miscarriage of justice is caused by condition three.
As to the first, the majority focuses on Cabrera's parental rights to the detriment of the rights of his daughter (and son), and of his common law wife, who may want to use Probation to express their views as to any further contact between the defendant and his children when he is released after nine years. The majority and United States v. Del Valle-Cruz,
We do not need to even infer the district court's reasons for imposing condition three, as it made those concerns explicit. The court was concerned about the risk of illegal actions by the defendant while on supervised release and explicitly raised the subject. The court warned Cabrera that he must realize that he could not "engage in the type of actions in which he engaged" and could not take advantage of people with learning disabilities.
And in response to an alleged threat from him against the victim and her family, the district court said the following:
I will not be considering the issue of the threat [for the purposes of sentencing], though I warn this defendant that if anything happens to the family of this minor or to the minor during the time of, let's say your supervised release or any point afterwards, from the police perspective you will be the first suspect.
(emphasis added).
The district court later said:
And the period of supervised release will be a significant one. In essence it will get to a point where if you do it right, if you restructure your life, if you don't give the Probation Officer any reason to believe that you are engaging in any similar action or in any other type of illegal action they will place you in minimal supervision. But if you set a different course in life, then they will be able to act.22
*37(emphasis added). So the district court wanted Probation involved to monitor the defendant on supervised release and said so.
Even if the district court had not been explicit, the reason for condition three is easy to infer. United States v. Vélez-Luciano,
Cabrera taught the victim how to download the application she used to send him images of herself and how to use a mobile phone camera self-timer so that she could "take pictures touching herself or in certain positions." Cabrera called the victim "everyday requesting pictures," and convinced her to send him "58-59 images depicting explicit sexual conduct as requested by him." He showed these images to his coworkers, and continued this behavior even after one of his coworkers warned him that he could get into trouble.
Throughout his misconduct, Cabrera "transferred images via Bluetooth to his prepaid cell phone," which he had at his sister's house so that he could keep the images and reduce the risk of detection. He regularly deleted the texting application he used to communicate with the victim to make sure that the images were removed from his primary cell phone, and so were hidden from his wife.
In light of these facts, the Presentence Investigation Report ("PSR") recommended, and the district court adopted, a host of conditions limiting Cabrera's contact with minors subject to Probation's approval. Cabrera is forbidden from "participat[ing] in any volunteer activity ... that would bring him in close contact with *38a child unless" he gets prior approval from Probation; "work[ing] with children under the age of 18 or hold[ing] a job that gives him authority over potential victims" and obtaining employment without Probation's approval; and "hav[ing] ... personal contact with ... minors under the age of 18 ... unless approved in advance by the Probation Officer" with an exception for incidental contact and contact with his relatives. The majority agrees that these conditions are not miscarriages of justice, but wants to create a special rule allowing Cabrera to reside with his children without Probation's involvement. Such a rule is unjustified given the evidence in the record, the findings of the district court, and the reasons I have stated.
Cabrera's daughter will turn sixteen -- Doe's age at the time of Cabrera's offense -- during Cabrera's term of supervised release. Cabrera's predatory behavior toward the victim in this case and his ability to hide his behavior from his wife make condition three a sensible means of protecting Cabrera's children, especially his daughter. That protection is not a miscarriage of justice. See Vélez-Luciano,
In response to all of this, the majority turns to Del Valle-Cruz to argue that more of an explanation was required before condition three was imposed. But the defendant in that case was less of a danger to his children than Cabrera is. Del Valle-Cruz had committed sexual misconduct eighteen years before his failure-to-register conviction -- which is not a sex offense -- and "ha[d] taken affirmative steps to turn his life around" apart from that. Del Valle-Cruz,
Del Valle-Cruz is also unhelpful to the majority because it is a SORNA failure-to-register case. In order to determine whether the associational restrictions were justified in SORNA failure-to-register cases, this court searches for recent sexual misconduct and violent behavior because "[s]uch restrictions operate to protect the public, especially children, from the defendant," United States v. Pabon,
Condition three does not even bar Cabrera from residing or being alone with his children. It merely requires that Cabrera get approval from Probation beforehand. Probation would make that determination based on several factors, including "the defendant's placement in the sex offender risk assessment tools" and "the recommendation of the psychosexual treatment provider." Access to biological parents may be granted "once a third party risk assessment has been conducted with the custodial parent or legal guardian." We upheld this type of condition in *39United States v. Mercado,
B. The Correct Standard of Appellate Review Precludes the Majority's Analysis
Cabrera waived plain error review by not making any effort in his principal brief to explain why condition three failed under even that standard. See Pabon,
Cabrera has similar failings. His principal brief did not cite plain error cases, it did not couch its argument in the plain error terminology, and it did not even reference the plain error standard. Cabrera "le[ft] the court to do counsel's work, create the ossature for the argument, and put flesh on its bones." United States v. Zannino,
The majority attempts to avoid the waiver by arguing that the difference between the miscarriage of justice standard and the plain error standard is blurry, and so it does not make sense find that the plain error argument has been waived where a party has made a miscarriage of justice argument. The fact that information relevant to the four prongs of the plain error standard was present in the principal brief does not preserve an unmade plain error argument.
The court's holding here adds to whatever confusion already existed by making a broad pronouncement about the similarity between two standards. This conclusion is particularly inappropriate because there was no briefing on the similarities and differences between the two standards.
The majority's analysis of the merits of the plain error challenge is also, in my view, incorrect. The second, third, and fourth prongs of plain error review are clearly absent for the reasons already explained and under our precedent. When faced with a similar condition, this court found that "at least two courts of appeals have held that a prior sex offense against a minor is sufficient to justify similar associational conditions, even where the record did not include particularized findings."
*40Pabon,
The majority attempts to distinguish Pabon, but is unsuccessful. The majority argues that "Cabrera's crime did not involve a girl below the applicable age of consent and did not take place at a domestic partner's home," and "any physical relationship he had with Doe would not itself have been unlawful." As I explained above, there is ample evidence in the record showing that Cabrera presents a danger to his children.
There is a question whether the district court in fact intended condition three to apply to contact with Cabrera's children. We often remand for clarification and do not need to find a miscarriage of justice to reach that result. See, e.g., United States v. Cunningham,
I agree with the majority that the waiver covers the term and conditions of supervised release, but I do not join its suggestion that a waiver of appeal may not extend to a term of supervised release where that term is left to the court's discretion by the plea agreement. That argument is foreclosed by our case law. United States v. Vélez-Luciano,
The majority claims that "[t]he court did not reject out-of-hand" the more favorable inferences urged by defense counsel. But the district court never credited defense counsel's depiction of Cabrera's conduct. The district court never adopted defense counsel's argument that "this is not one of those people who pr[e]ys on young women for the purpose of committing sexual offenses." The district court also never agreed with defense counsel that "[t]his is just one of those cases of misjudgment of what the law is ...." Rather, the district court found that, even if Cabrera had somehow been unaware that his behavior was illegal, he was put on notice when one of his coworkers warned him. The district court's findings that Cabrera is a first-time offender, that he had been in a long-term relationship with the mother of his children, and that relatives and neighbors had submitted letters on his behalf do not undermine the rationale for condition three.
I quote from the district court's statement at sentencing:
The Court also takes into consideration the circumstances surrounding the offense and it seems that in terms of the commission of the offense there is no doubt one, that the defendant knew that the victim was a minor. Two, based on the admissions made by the defendant at the time of the interview, he had been in continuous communications with the minor since around the summer of 2012 and actually he also knew that she was receiving psychological therapy, though he didn't know the reason. And actually he admitted that he was the one that explained and instructed the minor how to download the "text now" application and how to communicate via text and how to up-load the images she was taking at his request. In addition to that it seems that, and based on the statement that is appear [sic] here, that Mr. Cabrera at different times showed the images to the coworkers. That is stated specifically at paragraph 17, and got my attention that even if he didn't know it was illegal at that point in time, the person that looked at it based on his statements, actually told him that he was getting into problems. This after he was showing those pictures at the workplace.
The majority argues that I am applying a "categorical approach" to determine that condition three was justified. That is inaccurate. I am not arguing that any sex offense is sufficient to justify any condition of supervised release limiting contact with a defendant's minor children. Rather, my point is that the severity and details of Cabrera's offense justify the imposition of condition three such that the imposition can hardly be a miscarriage of justice or plain error.
The majority asserts that we are departing from Del Valle-Cruz by taking note of the fact that condition three does not prohibit Cabrera outright from contacting his children. But Mercado, decided in February 2015, tells us that it is "important[ ]" whether a condition serves as an outright ban or merely "require[s] that his association with his children be pre-approved by the probation officer ...."
The majority also argues that Pabon"did not address such claims in the context of an appellate waiver." That is true, but irrelevant. Once the majority reaches plain error review, the appellate waiver is already out of the picture, and we need to address the arguments for why the district court plainly erred. Here, Cabrera has not made a plain error argument and that should have ended this appeal.
The majority also states that Cabrera's situation is different because "unlike the defendant in Pabon -- who had 'violent inclinations' -- Cabrera's PSR depicts him as a stable and supportive father and domestic partner." (citation omitted). Cabrera may have been a supportive father to his two-year-old son, but he was arrested before the birth of his daughter so there can be no history as to the daughter. Similarly, the record does not say that Cabrera is without "violent inclinations." The PSR and testimony at sentencing indicate that, when confronted by Doe's brother about his behavior, Cabrera beat him with a blunt object. The victim's parents stated that the injuries to Doe's brother required hospitalization and two head surgeries. The district court did not determine who started the fight and said that, "even in a fight there are times in which a person has to put a stop to the amount of damage that he is able to cause. I find that troublesome." Contrary to the majority's view, the PSR and district court's findings about Cabrera's deceitful behavior toward the mother of his children does not square with him being a "supportive ... domestic partner." Pressuring a sixteen-year-old with a learning disability and emotional issues to send him naked pictures is not a "stable" thing to do.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- UNITED STATES of America, Appellee, v. Edwin CABRERA-RIVERA, Defendant, Appellant.
- Cited By
- 19 cases
- Status
- Published