PER CURIAM:
Donna Marie George was convicted of one count of conspiracy to distribute oxycodone and two counts of distribution of oxycodone and sentenced to 148 months' imprisonment. See 21 U.S.C. §§ 841, 846. George appeals, challenging her convictions and sentence. For the reasons set forth below, we affirm.
Viewed in the light most favorable to the government, the evidence presented at trial established that George was addicted to prescription narcotics. She fed her addiction through "doctor shopping" — seeing multiple doctors to get multiple prescriptions and selling the extra pills. Most of the prescriptions were for Oxycontin, a time-released version of oxycodone, although George obtained and used other pain medications as well. Lisa and Richard Sindelar were also addicts; they supported their habit by forging prescriptions. Using a computer and a copier, the Sindelars created prescriptions that appeared to be written by a doctor at a pain clinic.
A mutual acquaintance introduced George and the Sindelars in March 2007, and George thereafter began selling the Sindelars' pills. The Sindelars initially sold the drugs to the mutual acquaintance, who then sold them to George, who distributed them at the street level. In May 2007, the Sindelars began working directly with George. By June 2007, George and the Sindelars had become good friends. George regularly babysat for the Sindelars' young children, and Richard Sindelar occasionally created the fake prescriptions at George's house. George's adult daughter, Cindy Carter, was frequently at her house, and Carter and Lisa Sindelar also became friends. Carter, who was also addicted to pain pills, sometimes served as one of the runners who took the Sindelars' forged prescriptions to a pharmacy for filling.
In September 2007, Carter was arrested after filling a fake prescription. Carter agreed to cooperate with the FBI, and Richard Sindelar was arrested shortly after Carter called him to arrange a drug transaction. Lisa Sindelar was arrested in October 2007. After the Sindelars were arrested, George carried on, getting her supply through her doctor-shopping scheme and occasionally from a connection in Washington, D.C. George was finally arrested by the FBI in August 2009.
The Sindelars eventually pleaded guilty to drug-distribution charges, but George proceeded to trial. At trial, Lisa Sindelar testified that she and her husband lacked George's contacts and that George was their main street-level distributor. According to Sindelar, she and her husband were providing George with as many as four or five 90-pill prescriptions a day, and George was buying $8,000-$10,000 worth of drugs a week from them.
George's position at trial was that while she was addicted to prescription medications and sometimes bought and sold a few pills, she was not part of the conspiracy operated by the Sindelars. Although George did not testify, her claim of limited involvement with the Sindelars was supported by the testimony of George's daughter, who was a reluctant witness for the government. On cross-examination, Carter disputed much of Sindelar's testimony. Carter testified that George did not know about the Sindelars' prescription scheme and that George, who did not have a job, had money problems and thus could not have been buying $8,000-$10,000 worth of pills a week as Sindelar claimed. The jury was not persuaded by Carter's testimony and found George guilty of conspiracy to distribute oxycodone and distribution of oxycodone.
At the sentencing hearing, the district court heard testimony from Agent Andrew Lenhart, who testified about the drug quantities involved in the conspiracy, and from Carter, who again disputed her mother's involvement in the Sindelar conspiracy and testified about the quantity of narcotics personally consumed by George in order to manage her pain. The district court found Agent Lenhart's testimony to be credible and accepted the drug-quantity calculations as set forth in the PSR. The district court determined that George's base offense level was 34 and that a two-level obstruction-of-justice enhancement should be applied, resulting in a total offense level of 36. That offense level, when combined with George's category I criminal history, yielded an advisory sentencing range of 188-235 months. The district court varied downward and imposed concurrent sentences of 148 months for each of the three counts. This appeal followed.
We turn first to George's claim that she is entitled to a new trial because the government failed to fulfill its disclosure obligations under
A week after trial, the government informed George that, notwithstanding the government's "open file" discovery policy, five documents inadvertently had been placed in a separate file and thus had not been reviewed by George's trial attorney. Only three of those documents remain relevant on appeal — notes from separate investigative interviews of Lisa and Richard Sindelar and a document prepared by an FBI agent during the investigation that summarized the evidence and status of the investigation. The notes of the Sindelar interviews had been reviewed by George's first attorney, who was relieved before trial, but not by the attorney who represented her at trial. The investigation summary had not been disclosed to either attorney. After learning about the documents, George filed a motion seeking a new trial, arguing that the government breached its disclosure obligations and that a new trial was therefore required under
On appeal, George contends that the documents were favorable to her and material, and that they were suppressed because the government failed to include them in the discovery file. George therefore argues that the district court erred by denying her motion for a new trial.
As noted by the district court in its order denying George's motion for a new trial, George's first attorney personally reviewed (but did not retain a copy of) the notes of the Sindelar interviews. In light of that fact, the district court concluded that the interview notes were not suppressed by the government. We agree.
For
If the government elects to comply with its
In this case, the Sindelar interview notes were disclosed to one of George's attorneys, and that disclosure was sufficient to satisfy the government's
The investigation summary appears to be a mid-investigation review prepared, apparently for personal use, by Andrew Lenhart, an FBI agent who investigated the case and testified at trial and at sentencing. The summary was written at some point before George was arrested in August 2009, probably in late 2008, given that the latest date mentioned is October 31, 2008. The document gives a synopsis of the Sindelars' prescription-forging activities and lists the evidence against the Sindelars and Cindy Carter, among others. George is listed as a subject of the investigation, but her name otherwise appears only in reference to statements George made to law enforcement officials, which were included in the list of evidence against other subjects of the investigation. The investigation summary mentions no evidence against George herself.
There is no dispute that the investigation summary was "suppressed" within the meaning of
Undisclosed evidence is material when its cumulative effect is such that "there is a reasonable probability that, had the evidence been disclosed to the defense, the result of the proceeding would have been different."
The summary is simply a snapshot of the investigation at a single point in time; the government's failure at that particular moment to have nailed down evidence against George provides no basis for rejecting the evidence later gathered. Moreover, the lack of evidence at the time the summary was prepared was likely a reflection of the evolving stories told by the Sindelars. When the Sindelars were arrested and first interviewed, they gave statements implicating themselves, each other, and other family members, but not George. The Sindelars eventually admitted the full scope of their prescription-forging scheme and George's involvement with that scheme, pleaded guilty, and agreed to cooperate with the government. Counsel for George knew that the Sindelars' stories to law enforcement had evolved over time, and on cross-examination counsel questioned Lisa Sindelar about her failure to initially implicate George and raised the possibility that Sindelar was shading her testimony to earn a favorable sentencing recommendation from the government. Had it been disclosed, the summary perhaps could have provided counsel with another path to make the same point about the evolution in the Sindelars' story, but the summary provided no new basis for impeaching Sindelar or otherwise challenging the government's case. We therefore conclude that the investigation summary was not "material" for
Because the Sindelar interview notes were not suppressed and the investigation summary was not material, the district court committed no error in denying George's motion for a new trial.
We turn now to George's challenges to the sentence imposed by the district court.
George first contends that the district court's explanation of its drug-quantity determination was insufficient because the court did not mention the testimony of Cindy Carter, much less explain why it found her testimony less credible than that of the Agent Lenhart. We disagree.
District courts are required to make findings as necessary to resolve disputed factual issues that are relevant to sentencing.
When announcing its drug-quantity finding, the district court stated that it found the trial testimony of the government's witnesses to be credible as to the nature of the conspiracy and George's involvement in it, and the court likewise stated that it found Agent Lenhart's testimony at the sentencing hearing to be credible. Because Carter's testimony about her mother's involvement in the prescription-forging conspiracy was diametrically opposed to that of the government's witnesses, the court's statement that it found Agent Lenhart and the trial witnesses to be credible was an implicit but nonetheless clear rejection of Carter's testimony. We have never required a sentencing court to explain in any detail
George also challenges the substance of the district court's drug-quantity finding, arguing that the court erred by including pills that were prescribed for legitimate medical purposes.
When determining the drug quantity attributable to George, the district court rejected George's argument that any pills that were properly prescribed for legitimate medical needs should be excluded from the calculation. In rejecting this argument, the district court relied on out-of-circuit cases holding that drugs possessed for personal use should be excluded from the drug-quantity calculation in cases where the defendant was convicted of distribution or possession with intent to distribute, but should not be excluded if the defendant is convicted of
On appeal, George contends that the district court's reliance on the out-of-circuit cases was misplaced because those cases involve "street" drugs, such as crack and marijuana, that are illegal to possess in all circumstances. Under the Sentencing Guidelines, a defendant convicted of conspiring to distribute controlled substances "is accountable for all quantities of
At the time of George's sentencing, there were no published opinions from this court addressing the personal-use question in either the street-drug or prescription-drug context. We have, however, recently concluded that the distinction between conspiracy convictions and distribution convictions that has been drawn in cases involving street drugs is not necessarily applicable in cases involving prescription drugs.
Although the district court did not have the benefit of
The district court concluded that George should be held responsible for a total of 43,578 pills equivalent to 9,976.4 kilograms of marijuana, which resulted in a base offense level of 34.
Finally, George argues that the district court's mistaken view of her criminal record requires a remand for resentencing. We disagree.
One of the reasons the district court gave for its variance sentence was the substantial lapse of time since George's last conviction. The court stated that George's last conviction occurred in 1998, but the conviction actually occurred in 1988. George argues that if the district court had realized that it had been twenty-two years, not twelve years, since her last conviction, the court might have imposed an even lower sentence, and George therefore contends that the court's error about the date of her prior conviction requires resentencing. Because George did not object or otherwise bring the correct date to the court's attention, we review this claim for plain error only.
Under plain-error review, George bears the burden of establishing that the district court erred, that the error was plain, and that the error affected her substantial rights.
For the foregoing reasons, we conclude that the district court properly denied George's motion for a new trial, and we therefore affirm George's convictions. And because we conclude that the district court committed no reversible error in sentencing, we likewise affirm George's sentence.