Federal prosecutors are not required to prove that a defendant intended to commit fraud with stolen materials containing authentication features, such as driver’s licenses, for a sentencing enhancement to apply, the Ninth Circuit has ruled.
In a published opinion issued Monday, a three-judge panel held that U.S. District Judge Sherilyn Peace Garnett properly applied a sentencing enhancement in calculating a prison range of 24 to 30 months for Michelle Rodriguez, who pleaded guilty to possessing unauthorized access devices. Garnett ultimately sentenced Rodriguez to 20 months.
Writing for the panel, U.S. Circuit Judge Roopali H. Desai said the enhancement applied regardless of whether Rodriguez knew the items she possessed contained authentication features.
“Whether [Rodriguez] knew she possessed [two California driver’s licenses] bearing the authentication features or not, the authentication feature enhancement applies,” the panel said. “The plain text of [the relevant sentencing provision] requires that the offense at issue involved ‘the possession’ of an ‘authentication feature.’”
Rodriguez argued on appeal that prosecutors failed to show she possessed the licenses with intent to defraud, noting that authorities had not proven she knew the licenses were among roughly 140 pieces of mail addressed to other individuals that were found in her bags at the time of her arrest.
The sentencing enhancement increased Rodriguez’s offense level to 10 from 6, resulting in a guidelines range of 24 to 30 months. Without the enhancement, she argued, her recommended sentencing range would have been 12 to 18 months.
Judge Garnett rejected that argument but imposed a below-guidelines sentence of 20 months.
Representatives for the government declined to comment Tuesday. Counsel for Rodriguez did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
U.S. Circuit Judges Consuelo H. Callahan, Roopali H. Desai, and Ana de Alba sat on the panel.
The government is represented by Suria Marie Bahadue of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California. Rodriguez is represented by Kathryn Ann Young of the Office of the Federal Public Defender for the Central District of California.
The case is United States v. Rodriguez, Case No. 24-593, in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.
