United States v. Brown

Brown was arrested for selling heroin in Chicago. He offered to assist the police, telling the officers that he knew where a man named “Jimmie” stored large amounts of drugs and that he was supposed to meet Jimmie later that day. A search turned up eight baggies with approximately 1000 capsules containing 135 grams of heroin and the arrest of Sessom. As a hearing on Sessom’s motion to suppress, Brown denied having given the police the information. Sessom accepted a plea bargain and withdrew that motion before a ruling. Brown subsequently pled guilty to conspiring to distribute drugs and, with a two-level enhancement for obstruction of justice, was sentenced to 60 months, below both the actual guideline range and the range of 70 to 87 months that would have applied without the obstruction enhancement. The Seventh Circuit vacated the sentence. The judge who actually heard Brown’s testimony never made findings about the honesty of his testimony or the merits of the Sessom’s motion to suppress, but imposed the obstruction enhancement based on the other judge’s interim impressions about earlier testimony from police officers. That was not a sufficient factual foundation to support the enhancement. View "United States v. Brown" on Justia Law