WILKINSON, Circuit Judge:
Appellant Bryan Serafini pleaded guilty to one count of communicating a false distress message to the United States Coast Guard, in violation of 14 U.S.C. § 88(c). He was sentenced to fourteen months imprisonment and required to pay restitution for the costs incurred by the Coast Guard in responding to the specious communication. His sole argument on appeal is that the district court lacked the statutory authority to issue a restitution order. For the reasons that follow, we reject Serafini's claim and affirm the judgment of the district court.
The facts giving rise to this case are not in dispute. On May 11, 2014, Newport News Police Department and Virginia Marine Resources Commission officers responded to a report that an unauthorized boat had drifted into a restricted marine area at the Newport News Shipbuilding Company ("the shipyard"). J.A. 39. When they arrived at the shipyard, the officers discovered Bryan Serafini intoxicated in a twenty-four foot Shamrock motor vessel.
The officers questioned Serafini about how the vessel came to be in the restricted area of the shipyard. He explained that he had provided assistance to a man who was casting off the Shamrock from a pier located along the Pagan River. Serafini told the officers that once the boat left the pier he could not safely return to shore and thus remained onboard. As they exited the mouth of the river, the two men purportedly started fighting and eventually Serafini threw the other man overboard. Upon hearing Serafini's "very detailed" version of events, the Coast Guard and other local agencies immediately set out to find the person Serafini allegedly tossed into the water.
During the search, law enforcement determined that the Shamrock motor vessel had in fact been stolen. They also spoke with a witness who saw Serafini alone on the pier prior to the reported theft.
A grand jury in the Eastern District of Virginia returned a one-count indictment against Serafini charging him with knowingly and willfully communicating a false distress message, in violation of 14 U.S.C. § 88(c). J.A. 6. With the advice of counsel, Serafini pleaded guilty on December 30, 2014.
In this appeal, Serafini contends that the cost provision of Section 88(c) permits the Coast Guard to seek only civil redress against those who communicate false distress messages. We disagree. In our view, Section 88(c)(3) was designed to hold individuals "liable" in either criminal or civil proceedings for "all costs the Coast Guard incurs as a result of the individual's action." We shall first set forth Section
At its core, 14 U.S.C. § 88(c) serves two purposes. First, Congress sought to protect the Coast Guard's limited budget by imposing punishment on those who intentionally send false distress calls. Section 88(c) reflects the view that essential resources should not be squandered at the whim of pranksters or, even worse, by those who would deliberately divert the Coast Guard's attention from their own nefarious activities. Second, and equally important, Section 88(c) reflects Congress's desire to avoid needlessly risking the lives of Coast Guard personnel, whose search and rescue operations can be highly dangerous and are too often accompanied by tragic consequences.
To that end, Section 88(c) provides:
14 U.S.C. § 88(c). Here, the parties dispute whether subsection (3) permits an order of restitution as part of a criminal sentence.
"A restitution order that exceeds the authority of the statutory source is no less illegal than a sentence of imprisonment that exceeds the statutory maximum."
Serafini asserts that, when read "in context, the phrasing `liable for costs' connote[s] civil liability, rather than a criminal sanction." Appellant's Br. at 21. According to Serafini, "[t]he text and structure of the statute ... make this [reading] clear."
We fail to see why the phrase "liable for all costs the Coast Guard incurs" would authorize only civil remedies. First of all, Congress did not limit "liability" to a particular form of proceeding. Moreover, the argument for a narrow reading of Section 88(c)(3) is undermined by the language in the preceding subsection (c)(2). Section 88(c)(3) speaks broadly of liability "for all costs the Coast Guard incurs," while (c)(2) subjects violators solely to a "civil penalty." As the Supreme Court has reiterated: "Where Congress includes particular language in one section of a statute but omits it in another section of the same Act, it is generally presumed that Congress acts intentionally and purposely in the disparate inclusion or exclusion."
Serafini responds by urging us to draw a negative inference from the fact that Congress "could have specified, as it did with the `civil penalty' in § 88(c)(2), that it intended the defendant to be `criminally liable' under § 88(c)(3)." Appellant's Br. at 23. But that argument ignores a critical feature of the statute itself. Most importantly, 14 U.S.C. § 88(c) is a criminal provision; it makes "knowingly and willfully" communicating false distress messages a class D felony. Thus, unlike the civil carve out specified in subsection (c)(2), Congress had no need to state in what is generally a criminal statute that subsection (c)(3) authorizes criminal liability.
Serafini also makes much of the fact that Section 88(c)(3) does not use the word "restitution." He maintains that "Congress easily could have used language that clearly called for criminal restitution orders, including, most obviously, the word `restitution.' Or, it could have referred expressly to the [relevant] restitution statute."
We also find this argument unpersuasive. Congress had no need to use the particular word "restitution" when the statutory text made its restitutionary intent so clear. In Section 88(c)(3), Congress subjected individuals to liability "for
Serafini further attempts to bolster his interpretation of Section 88(c) by relying on other provisions in the criminal code. "The fact that [Congress] has [explicitly referred to restitution] in other statutes," Serafini contends, "strongly suggests that it did not intend to do so in § 88(c)(3)." Appellant's Reply Br. at 5-6 (citing 42 U.S.C. § 1383a(b); 38 U.S.C. § 6108(b); 21 U.S.C. § 853(q)).
This kind of exercise, however, leads us far afield. Our task in interpreting the meaning of Section 88(c) "begins where all such inquiries must begin: with the language of the statute itself."
Finally, Serafini invokes the rule of lenity. Appellant's Reply Br. at 9. He claims that because the statute does not "`plainly and unmistakably' mandate[] criminal restitution,"
To apply the rule of lenity here would mark a sharp departure from the rulings of the Supreme Court and our own. It is not the case that a provision is "`ambiguous' for purposes of lenity merely because it [is]
In sum, the text and all reasonable inferences from it provide a clear rebuttal to Serafini's proposed construction of Section 88(c)(3). Our interpretation, to repeat, is in no way meant to suggest that the Coast Guard cannot recover the costs associated with a false distress call in a civil action. The sole question before us, however, is whether an order of restitution may issue under Section 88(c)(3) as part of a criminal sentence. We hold that it may. As described above, a primary purpose of the statute was to preserve for legitimate purposes the Coast Guard's finite budget. It would defeat that purpose to mandate that the Coast Guard expend even more resources in separate civil actions to recoup false distress call costs.
For the foregoing reasons, we affirm the judgment of the district court.