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UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. MCMAINE ALLEN O’GEORGIA (05-2598); a/k/a MARK ARHEBAMEN (06-2505), Defendant-Appellant. |
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Appeal from the United States District Court
for the Eastern District of Michigan at Detroit.
Nos. 99-80353; 02-80761—Gerald E. Rosen, Chief District Judge;
Lawrence P. Zatkoff, District Judge.
Submitted: March 13, 2009
Decided and Filed: June 24, 2009
Before: MARTIN and GILMAN, Circuit Judges; ZOUHARY, District Judge.
RONALD LEE GILMAN, Circuit Judge. Mark Arhebamen, also known as McMaine Allen O’Georgia, pled guilty in 2001 to one count of aiding and assisting in the preparation of a false federal income tax return. He received a sentence of 21 months of imprisonment plus one year of supervised release. This court affirmed his conviction and sentence, but the Supreme Court remanded the case in 2005 for resentencing in light of United States v. Booker, 543 U.S. 220 (2005). The district court reimposed the same sentence.
While the appeal of his conviction and sentence was pending, Arhebamen was prosecuted separately for conduct that occurred during the false-tax-return proceedings. The new charges were for failure to appear at sentencing, making false claims of United States citizenship, corruptly endeavoring to obstruct justice by lying to the Probation Office, and making false statements to judicial officials. Arhebamen was tried before a jury in 2003 on these new charges and was convicted on all counts. After applying six different upward departures under the United States Sentencing Guidelines, the district court sentenced Arhebamen to 152 months of imprisonment and to four years of supervised release. This court affirmed Arhebamen’s conviction, but remanded for resentencing pursuant to Booker. The district court again imposed the 152-month sentence and the four-year term of supervised release.
Arhebamen now appeals both sentences. For the reasons set forth below, we VACATE the sentences and REMAND the cases to the district court for resentencing consistent with this opinion.
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ROBERT MERRIWEATHER, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. T. A. ZAMORA, et al., Defendants-Appellants. |
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Appeal from the United States District Court
for the Eastern District of Michigan at Detroit.
No. 04-71706—Gerald E. Rosen, Chief District Judge.
Argued and Submitted: December 5, 2008
Decided and Filed: June 24, 2009
Before: SILER and GIBBONS, Circuit Judges; STAMP, District Judge.
JULIA SMITH GIBBONS, Circuit Judge. Seven defendants who worked in the mailroom at the Milan, Michigan Federal Detention Center appeal from the order of the district court refusing to dismiss plaintiff Robert Merriweather’s Bivens complaint based upon qualified immunity. See Bivens v. Six Unknown Named Agents of the Federal Bureau of Narcotics, 403 U.S. 388 (1971). The defendants argue that the district court improperly denied qualified immunity because they violated no clearly established constitutional right of Merriweather’s and their actions, if not a reasonable application of the training they received, do not rise above mere negligence. For the following reasons, we hold that the district court erred in refusing to dismiss Merriweather’s suit against Scott Boudrie, James L. Davenport, Jr., and Frank Finch and therefore reverse the district court’s denial of summary judgment as to those defendants. We affirm the district court’s denial of qualified immunity as to defendants T. A. Zamora, Steve Culver, Don Vroman, and Brian Dutton and remand this case for further proceedings.