Sentencing Guidelines

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7^th Circuit Court of Appeals

Case Name: United States of America v. Dean D. Young

Case No.: 17-3494

Officials: WOOD, Chief Judge, and FLAUM and HAMILTON, Circuit Judges.

Focus: Sentencing Guidelines

Defendant‐appellant Dean Young pleaded guilty to one count of wire fraud, 18 U.S.C. § 1343, for defrauding the Veterans Administration (VA) regarding the extent of his service‐related injuries. The district court sentenced Young to 21 months in prison, in the middle of the Sentencing Guideline range calculated based on the loss amount agreed to by the parties and adopted by the court.

Young appeals his sentence, arguing that the district court committed a “plain error” by using the stipulated loss amount of $201,521.41 to calculate both his guideline range and the amount of restitution. We affirm. Young waived any objection to the loss amount. This was not merely a forfeiture—an inadvertent failure to raise an important issue—but rather an intentional waiver that was part of a broad compromise of potentially disputed sentencing issues. We hope this opinion might help illustrate the difference between waiver and forfeiture

Affirmed

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Attorney Derek A. Hawkins is the managing partner at Hawkins Law Offices LLC, where he heads up the firm’s startup law practice. He specializes in business formation, corporate governance, intellectual property protection, private equity and venture capital funding and mergers & acquisitions. Check out the website at www.hawkins-lawoffices.com or contact them at 262-737-8825.