By: WISCONSIN LAW JOURNAL STAFF//April 1, 2014//
U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit
Criminal
Sentencing — restitution
In setting restitution, the district court properly disregarded possible offsets from a pending state court action.
“In sum, the district judge’s restitution award was supported by the preponderance of the evidence regarding O’Hern’s loss and the cash that was returned to him, the only two relevant factors. It would have been error for the district judge to consider other amounts O’Hern may be adjudged to owe Malone or Anderson in a forthcoming state court decision. Since those other amounts were irrelevant, the district judge did not err in failing to postpone the determination of restitution under 18 U.S.C. § 3664(d)(5) to allow time to determine those amounts. Nor did she misunderstand her discretion to apply the complexity exception or abuse her discretion by not doing so where the restitution calculation was straightforward.”
Affirmed.
Appeal from the United States District Court for the Central District of Illinois, Darrow, J., Gilbert, J.