United States v. Acevedo-Lopez

The First Circuit affirmed Defendant’s sentence of nine years’ imprisonment imposed in connection with his conviction for violating 18 U.S.C. 371 and 666(a) by conspiring to bribe and paying a bribe to a judge on the Puerto Rico Court of First Instance. The First Circuit held that the district court (1) did not err in calculating the value of the benefit to the judge; (2) did not err by finding that the criminal activity involved five or more participants; (3) followed the preferred methodology when it determined Defendant’s sentence; (4) did not abuse its discretion by considering evidence of Defendant’s prior acts; (5) was not required to inform Defendant that it intended to rely on evidence from Defendant’s detention hearing and public corruption statistics; and (6) imposed a variance, not a departure. View "United States v. Acevedo-Lopez" on Justia Law