I will call him Stan. Stan was a middleweight in the interstate meth business. That’s how I got to know and sentence Stan.

With a weapon, Stan was involved in more than 1.7 kilos of meth. His criminal history category was VI—the worst of the worst. So, I hit Stan with 292 months (almost 25 years) in prison despite the fact that he was only 22. Happily, the Sentence-O-Matic 1000 worked exactly as intended.

Later, under Rule 35(b) and a retroactive change in the drug Guidelines, I reduced his sentence twice. Ultimately, he got a mere 151 months. He did his time, and got out of prison.

Stan was into his thirties by then. If you were aware of the recidivism study conducted by the Sentencing Commission in 2016, you would wager a lot of money that Stan would reoffend.

Rearrest Rates for Recidivism Study Offenders by Criminal History Category

With my agreement, the probation office transferred Stan’s supervision to another state. But, of course, Stan promptly screwed it up–more meth, although not much.

I issued a warrant for him and directed the issuance of a writ to bring him back to Nebraska for an initial appearance on a violation of supervised release and before the out-of-state folks did their work. For reasons that don’t matter (think of the military acronym SNAFU), the writ was never served and the marshals never went to get him. He got popped in state court with a year in prison.

Despite the screw-up with the writ, a detainer had been lodged by then. So, Stan did his state time, exited the state prison, and off he went to another federal court in the state where he had just been released from prison.

For reasons that I do not understand, the United States Magistrate Judge released Stan (huh?) rather than detain him for a booking on Con Air. The judge told Stan to go back to Nebraska to face the music. To everyone’s amazement here in the land of the flat water, that is exactly what Stan did. (Will wonders never cease?)

Well, when Stan returned to Nebraska, everyone’s jaw dropped. Our Magistrate Judge decided, quite properly in my view, that Stan was probably safe to release. After all, he voluntarily came back to face a Guideline range of 51 to 63 months for violating supervised release.

So Stan got a job, went to work, reported to his probation officer (a very seasoned and tough but fair person), and waited for the hammer to drop. By the way, I am not known as a softie when it comes to violating supervised release. Stan’s FPD undoubtedly made that clear to him.

And then Stan did something astounding. Here, redacted for reasons of my own, is what a police chief wrote Stan:

Sergeant X has informed me of the heroic actions you displayed on the morning of Y. According to Sergeant X, you were returning home from work, saw a glow in the area of a home . . . and asked the driver of the vehicle in which you were riding to drive around the block.

Upon arriving in front of [the home], your fears were confirmed that not only had fire engulfed the second floor of the multi-unit residence, but the fire escape had been compromised by the fire and there was already one person trapped on the roof of the building. You wasted no time and went into action, asking another citizen to boost you onto the first story roof, where the woman who had escaped to that location informed you there were five children and another adult still in the second-floor apartment.

You entered the second floor unit through a window, but due to heavy smoke, you were unable to see anything. You relied solely upon the direction of the screams from the children trapped inside the apartment, which enabled you to reach each of them and deliver them, along with the remaining adult, onto the first floor roof, where they were all then lowered to the ground by . . . Fire & Rescue personnel as well as deputies from the . . . Sheriff’s Department.

[Stan], your actions made the difference between a family reunited on the ground versus a mom planning funeral services for her children. You weren’t asked to help in this situation, but took it upon yourself to place your own life in danger to save the lives of complete strangers to you. It brings me great pleasure to commend you and thank you on behalf of the . . . Police Department and the citizens of [the locality], specifically the adults and children you helped rescue that morning . . ..

What did I do when Stan appeared before me for sentencing on the supervised release violation? Why, I maxed him out, of course.

Nah! As John Travolta once said,

Stan got time served.

Richard G. Kopf
Senior United States District Judge (Nebraska)