On December 14, 2009, in the matter of United States v. R.H. (E.D. Wisc. 2009) Sheppard and Associates obtained relief for a defendant in a Relevant-Conduct Sentencing Hearing in United States District Court in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.  The case involved a Conspiracy to Distribute more than 1,000 Kilograms of Marijuana.  Cannabis had been transported from Northern California to Milwaukee, Indiana, and into Chicago.   Our defendant was charged as a distributor in the Chicago area.  The goverment had argued that, in addition to the amount of cannabis which the defendant personally transacted, he was responsible for 250 pounds of cannabis contained in duffel bags that were stored inside his vacation residence in Gary, Indiana by another individual.   That 250 pounds would have added six points to the defendant’s advisory Sentencing Guideline range and substantially increased his sentence.  Following an adversarial hearing on the matter, the District Court judge ruled that there was insufficient evidence that the quantity of cannabis in the duffel bags was reasonably forseeable to the defendant and, therefore, did not hold the defendant responsible for the additional 250 pounds.

Other successes in this case came in the forfeiture arena.  The defendan’t car, RV, plane, certain monies, and his vacation home were the subject of forfetiture provisions in the indictment but these properites were saved from forfeiture.  Litigation over the car was particulary noteworthy because, pursuant to our motion, the court held that the government’s Motion to Maintain Custody over the vehicle was untimely (a rare holding in forfeiture litigation).