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15-year Fraud Sentence Affirmed Despite Failure to Establish Guideline Range

By Shari Allison

U.S. v. Zaler, 2010 WL 5097758 (12/15/10) (Colo.) (unpub'd) - The 10th affirms an upward variance of unclear length to 15 years for fraud. The district court never clarified what the disputed guideline range was. When the defendant complained the court had not addressed his guideline arguments, the court responded: "I think I addressed that the guidelines are not being applied and hence the objections regarding the guidelines have no bearing at all upon my sentence." If the failure to calculate a range was error, the error was harmless, the 10th held, because the judge was obviously going to give a 15-year-sentence, no matter what the range was. The judge adequately explained the variance. The court did not have to distinguish the defendant's characteristics from the ordinary offender contemplated by the guidelines...continue to full post

Full post as published by Tenth Circuit Blog on December 22, 2010 (boomark / email).