United States v. San Juanita Lozano , 791 F.3d 535 ( 2015 )


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  •      Case: 14-40042    Document: 00513089722       Page: 1   Date Filed: 06/23/2015
    IN THE UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS
    FOR THE FIFTH CIRCUIT
    No. 14-40042                  United States Court of Appeals
    Fifth Circuit
    FILED
    UNITED STATES OF AMERICA,                                            June 23, 2015
    Lyle W. Cayce
    Plaintiff - Appellee                                        Clerk
    v.
    SAN JUANITA GALLEGOS LOZANO,
    Defendant - Appellant
    Appeal from the United States District Court
    for the Southern District of Texas
    Before REAVLEY, SMITH, and GRAVES, Circuit Judges.
    REAVLEY, Circuit Judge:
    After six days of trial, San Juanita Gallegos Lozano entered into an oral
    plea agreement and pleaded guilty to Count Two of a thirteen-count indictment
    relating to a conspiracy to defraud Medicare and Medicaid.               Count Two
    referred to a conspiracy involving “La Hacienda Clinic” that began “on or
    about” April 30, 2005.        Count One, meanwhile, referred to a conspiracy
    pertaining to the “Mission Clinic” that began “on or about” September 20, 2001.
    Consistent with Count Two, the factual basis proffered by the government and
    agreed to by the defendant established that the conspiracy began “on or about
    April 30th, 2005.” In describing the fraudulent scheme, the factual basis did
    not identify either clinic.
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    At sentencing the district court ordered restitution based on losses
    traceable to both La Hacienda Clinic and Mission Clinic beginning on
    September 20, 2001. Lozano did not object to the calculation of restitution but
    asserts on appeal that the district court plainly erred by ordering restitution
    based on losses traceable to the Mission Clinic and based on losses occurring
    prior to April 30, 2005. Given the factual basis underpinning Lozano’s guilty
    plea, the government agrees the district court committed plain error by
    ordering restitution based on losses that occurred prior to April 30, 2005, but
    argues the district court properly included losses traceable to the Mission
    Clinic conspiracy. For the reasons that follow, we affirm in part and reverse
    in part.
    I.
    We ordinarily review the legality of a restitution order de novo. United
    States v. Adams, 
    363 F.3d 363
    , 365 (5th Cir. 2004). Here, however, because
    the defendant failed to the object to the restitution calculation, we review for
    plain error. United States v. Maturin, 
    488 F.3d 657
    , 659–60 (5th Cir. 2007).
    We must determine if there was error, if it was plain, and if it affected the
    defendant’s substantial rights.     
    Id. at 660.
        “When all three of these
    requirements are met, we will exercise our discretion to correct the error if it
    seriously affects the fairness, integrity or public reputation of judicial
    proceedings.”   United States v. Inman, 
    411 F.3d 591
    , 595 (5th Cir. 2005)
    (internal quotations and brackets omitted).
    II.
    A.
    “[W]here a fraudulent scheme is an element of the conviction, the court
    may award restitution for ‘actions pursuant to that scheme.’” United States v.
    2
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    Cothran, 
    302 F.3d 279
    , 289 (5th Cir. 2002) (quoting United States v. Stouffer,
    
    986 F.2d 916
    , 928 (5th Cir. 1993)). “When a defendant is convicted of fraud
    pursuant to a plea agreement,” we “define[] the underlying scheme by referring
    to the mutual understanding of the parties.” 
    Adams, 363 F.3d at 366
    . “The
    mutual understanding reached by parties during plea negotiations is normally
    not detailed in the original charging document, and is more often gleaned from
    any superceding indictments, plea agreements, and statements made by the
    parties during plea and sentencing hearings.” 
    Id. at 367.
          The parties agree that fraud was an element of the crime of conviction,
    meaning the district court did not err by including losses related to both clinics
    if the parties mutually understood the agreed-upon scope of the fraudulent
    scheme extended to cover both clinics. There is substantial evidence in the
    record to suggest Lozano understood her guilty plea to encompass the Mission
    Clinic conspiracy.
    While Lozano now argues it was error to include losses related to Mission
    Clinic, at sentencing Lozano (both personally and through her counsel) took
    responsibility only for losses relating to Mission Clinic.      For example, by
    disclaiming any connection to La Hacienda co-conspirator Anthony Puig,
    Lozano effectively asserted she had nothing to do with the La Hacienda
    conspiracy and that her wrongdoing was confined to the Mission Clinic.
    Objecting to a sentence enhancement based on the intended amount of loss,
    Lozano’s counsel “ask[ed] the Court perhaps consider the actual amount of loss
    just as to the Mission Clinic,” and asserted “our position is that the amounts
    attributed to Hacienda Clinic were so remote” that criminal liability was
    unwarranted. Lozano’s counsel seemingly thus confirmed that the scope of the
    conspiracy at least included Mission Clinic. After arguing before the trial court
    3
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    that Lozano should be held accountable only for losses relating to Mission
    Clinic, Lozano’s argument on appeal that she should not be held “responsible
    for losses related to the Mission Clinic conspiracy” because she did not
    understand that her guilty plea encompassed that “separate” fraudulent
    scheme is unconvincing.
    On this record, we would have no trouble concluding Lozano and the
    government mutually understood that the fraudulent scheme to which Lozano
    pleaded guilty included the Mission Clinic conspiracy. It is enough for us to
    say, however, that if this conclusion is somehow erroneous, the error is not
    “clear or obvious.” See United States v. Coil, 
    442 F.3d 912
    , 916 (5th Cir. 2006).
    We will not upset the order of restitution for losses traceable to Mission Clinic.
    B.
    The order is challenged on the further grounds that it requires
    restitution for losses sustained outside the proper temporal scope.         Here,
    according to both the indictment and the factual basis recited by the
    government, the temporal scope of the offense of conviction was April 30, 2005
    through January 10, 2006. Nonetheless, the district court ordered restitution
    based on losses commencing September 20, 2001. The parties agree that this
    was plain error and that remand is appropriate.
    As previously stated, because this case involved a fraudulent scheme, the
    district court was authorized to award restitution for “actions pursuant to that
    scheme.”   
    Cothran, 302 F.3d at 289
    .         “However, the restitution for the
    underlying scheme to defraud is limited to the specific temporal scope of the
    indictment.” 
    Inman, 411 F.3d at 595
    ; see also United States v. Mason, 
    722 F.3d 691
    , 693 (5th Cir. 2013). In other words, “[a]n award of restitution cannot
    compensate a victim . . . for losses caused by conduct that falls outside the
    4
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    temporal scope of the acts of conviction.” United States v. Sharma, 
    703 F.3d 318
    , 323 (5th Cir. 2012).
    As discussed above, because the conviction was secured via a guilty plea,
    our focus cannot be solely on the indictment. With respect to the temporal
    scope of the scheme, however, there is no ambiguity. As the government
    concedes in its briefing, “[t]he factual basis limited the temporal scope of the
    scheme to April 30, 2005, through January 10, 2006.” In confirming the factual
    basis for Lozano’s guilty plea, the district court asked Lozano to confirm that
    “sometime between on or about April 30th in 2005 and continuing until on or
    about January 10th of 2006” she committed the acts constituting a conspiracy
    to defraud Medicare and Medicaid, and Lozano affirmed these facts. Because
    the restitution award accounted for losses sustained prior to April 30, 2005,
    the district court erred. See 
    Inman, 411 F.3d at 595
    .
    We have repeatedly found plain error where a district court awards
    restitution based on losses that occurred outside the proper temporal scope.
    See, e.g., 
    Mason, 722 F.3d at 694
    ; 
    Inman, 411 F.3d at 595
    ; see also United States
    v. De Leon, 
    728 F.3d 500
    , 508, n.36 (5th Cir. 2013). While none of those cases
    involve a plea agreement, here the factual basis unambiguously defined the
    temporal scope of the offense of conviction. When reciting the factual basis in
    court, the prosecutor twice stated the offense began on or about April 30, 2005.
    The district court cited that same temporal scope on the record. Moreover, we
    have previously found error when, after a plea agreement, the district court
    awarded restitution based in part on losses that occurred prior to the proper
    temporal scope. See 
    Sharma, 703 F.3d at 323
    . The error was plain.
    5
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    By the government’s reckoning, the restitution was excessive in the
    amount of $80,533.93. The error affected Lozano’s substantial rights. See
    
    Inman, 411 F.3d at 595
    .
    While the parties agree that reversal and remand is proper, we must
    independently determine whether, in light of the foregoing, the error seriously
    affected “the fairness, integrity or public reputation of judicial proceedings.”
    
    Id. Even at
    this juncture, reversal is not automatic.      United States v.
    Escalante–Reyes, 
    689 F.3d 415
    , 425 (5th Cir. 2012) (en banc). In every case
    where a district court plainly erred by ordering restitution for losses that
    occurred outside the proper temporal scope, we have exercised our discretion
    to correct the problem. See 
    Mason, 722 F.3d at 695
    ; 
    Inman, 411 F.3d at 595
    ;
    see also 
    Maturin, 488 F.3d at 663
    . The error here improperly increased the
    restitution amount by more than $80,000 and merits correction. See 
    Inman, 411 F.3d at 595
    .
    III.
    We exercise our discretion to VACATE the restitution order and
    REMAND to the district court for recalculation of the restitution amount in
    accordance with this opinion.    The conviction and sentence are otherwise
    AFFIRMED.
    6
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    JERRY E. SMITH, Circuit Judge, dissenting:
    In essence though not explicitly, the majority accuses Chief U.S. District
    Judge Ricardo Hinojosa of being “derelict” 1 in imposing a sentence that, in the
    majority’s view, apparently is so “particularly egregious” 2 that it undermines
    the integrity of the judicial system as an “injustice so grave as to warrant
    disregard of usual procedural rules.” 3 Chief Judge Hinojosa is the former
    Chair of the U.S. Sentencing Commission and is, quite probably, the nation’s
    foremost expert on federal sentencing. The panel majority’s reversal—albeit
    with the best of intentions to avoid even the possibility of error—is unfair to
    him and misapplies the standards for plain-error review.                I respectfully
    dissent.
    The majority is mistaken in saying that Chief Judge Hinojosa erred
    when he ordered restitution for the whole temporal scope of the Mission Clinic
    fraud, which was outlined in the indictment and admitted to by Lozano. And
    even if the court did plainly err, we should decline to exercise our discretion to
    correct the error because Lozano has not shown how it seriously affected the
    fairness, integrity, or public reputation of judicial proceedings.
    1   United States v. Frady, 
    456 U.S. 152
    , 163 (1982).
    2   United States v. Young, 
    470 U.S. 1
    , 15 (1985).
    3 United States v. Duarte-Juarez, 
    441 F.3d 336
    , 340 (5th Cir. 2006) (per curiam)
    (citations omitted).
    7
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    I.
    The majority posits that the restitution order was flawed because the
    indictment and the factual proffer at the plea hearing included statements lim-
    iting the temporal scope of the fraudulent scheme. The indictment’s language,
    which is materially similar to that offered at the plea hearing, is as follows:
    Beginning on or about April 30, 2005 and continuing on or about Jan-
    uary 10, 2006, . . . [the defendants] did conspire and agree together . . . to
    knowingly and willfully execute and attempt to execute a scheme and
    artifice to defraud the health care benefit programs known as Medicare
    and Medicaid.
    The majority places too much emphasis on that statement and not enough on
    the other parts of the indictment.
    Count Two incorporates by reference the first forty paragraphs, which
    lay out the specific details of the fraudulent scheme stretching back to 2001.
    And if that were not enough, the overt-acts section of Count Two incorporates
    specifics of those opening factual paragraphs, including some that covered
    fraudulent activities at the Mission Clinic going back to 2001. For example,
    paragraph 29 is incorporated into the overt-acts section and states that “from
    on or about September 20, 2001,” Lozano continued to operate the Mission
    Clinic unlawfully. Paragraph 30, likewise incorporated, describes the same
    time frame and states that Lozano “submitted claims, caused claims to be sub-
    mitted, allowed claims to be submitted, and or aided and abetted in the sub-
    mission of false and fraudulent claims to Medicare and or Medicaid . . . .” The
    factual background has a section on the 2001–2006 Mission activities and a
    section on the 2005–2006 La Hacienda activities, and Count Two explicitly
    incorporates both sections.
    Compare this case to United States v. de Leon, 
    728 F.3d 500
    (5th Cir.
    8
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    2013). The defendant was convicted on a five-count indictment that charged
    only conduct from June 2008 through April 2010. Because “the temporal scope
    of the conduct charged in the indictment” was thus limited, the court erred in
    awarding restitution for payments the defendant received in 2005, 2006, 2007,
    and 2011. 
    Id. at 507.
    Unlike the indictment here, de Leon’s indictment
    included no facts from the contested time periods. That was a classic case of
    trying to expand beyond a plainly limited indictment; to the contrary is this
    case, in which we address only a claim that one general sentence implicitly
    repudiated a series of factual assertions that followed it.
    We have never established a rule that a general statement about the
    time span of a scheme overrides the specific details of that scheme; quite to the
    contrary, the actions alleged in the indictment are our lodestar in navigating
    the murky waters of defining a fraudulent scheme. “Although we sometimes
    have struggled to define the outer bounds of a particular fraudulent scheme,
    we have focused on the actions alleged in the indictment and their temporal
    scope.” 4 There is no dispute that Count Two specifically incorporated, as overt
    acts in furtherance of the conspiracy and the scheme, descriptions of fraudu-
    lent conduct stretching back to 2001. If we were referencing just the strict
    letter of the indictment, as we would if there were a guilty verdict, that would
    be enough to end the inquiry.
    4 United States v. Cothran, 
    302 F.3d 279
    , 289 (5th Cir. 2002); see also United States v.
    Inman, 
    411 F.3d 591
    , 595 (5th Cir. 2005) (holding that temporal scope of indictment is estab-
    lished by actions charged therein); United States v. Lee, 211 F. App’x 322, 326 (5th Cir. 2006)
    (“The temporal scope of the criminal behavior and the specific acts charged in the indictment
    define the parameters of the fraudulent scheme for purposes of determining restitution under
    the MVRA.”); United States v. O’Neal, 82 F. App’x 980, 984 (5th Cir. 2003) (“In order to deter-
    mine which of a defendant’s actions are actions pursuant to a scheme of conduct, courts must
    focus on the actions alleged in the indictment and their temporal scope.”).
    9
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    But there is a plea agreement, so we must define the fraudulent scheme
    by the mutual understanding of the parties. That can be difficult because the
    strict letter of the indictment might not define the scheme. “The essence of a
    plea agreement is that both the prosecution and the defense make concessions
    to avoid potential losses.” Hughey v. United States, 
    495 U.S. 411
    , 421 (1990).
    One of those concessions may be some limitation on the scope of the scheme,
    and such an understanding would not be memorialized in the indictment. See
    United States v. Adams, 
    363 F.3d 363
    , 367 (5th Cir. 2004). Because of that
    possibility, we must not limit our definition of the scheme to the letter of the
    indictment but should look also to “any super[s]eding indictments, plea agree-
    ments, and statements made by the parties during plea and sentencing
    hearings” to determine whether they reached a different understanding. 
    Id. None of
    that, however, lends support to Lozano.
    At the plea hearing, the government stated the agreement for Chief
    Judge Hinojosa:
    There is a verbal agreement between the parties, your Honor. In
    exchange for Ms. Lozano’s plea of guilty to Count Two of the indictment
    the government will move to dismiss the remaining counts of the super-
    seding indictment along with the original indictment at the time of
    sentencing.
    Lozano’s lawyer at the hearing confirmed the accuracy of that summary.
    That plea agreement offers no support for an interpretation of the fraud-
    ulent scheme that is narrower than the one described by the indictment. If
    anything, it supports following the scheme as the indictment would define it.
    There is no indication that the plea negotiations resulted in an agreement to
    limit the temporal scope of the scheme; instead, what Lozano secured was the
    dismissal of twelve other counts.
    10
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    Nor does the plea hearing help Lozano. Chief Judge Hinojosa had the
    prosecutor read Count Two aloud; Lozano expressly waived the reading of the
    incorporated introductory paragraphs and the overt acts.
    THE COURT: So you are waiving the reading of paragraphs one
    through forty of this indictment even though they are
    referred to in Count Number Two, as well as the overt
    acts; is that right, with regards to Count Number Two?
    [LOZANO]:      That is correct, sir.
    THE COURT: But you've read them before and you're familiar with
    them?
    [LOZANO]:      I have.
    It is hard to understand that exchange as anything other than Chief Judge
    Hinojosa’s diligently ensuring that Lozano understood that those paragraphs
    and the facts within them were part of the count of conviction.
    The sentencing hearing provides still further support for a mutual
    understanding that reached back to 2001. A defendant’s failure to object “in
    the district court to the characterization of the scheme or restitution amount[ ]
    further demonstrat[es] the parties’ mutual understanding.” 
    Cothran, 302 F.3d at 290
    . The presentence report’s calculation of the restitution award included
    pre-2005 fraudulent billings, and Lozano did not object in writing or at sentenc-
    ing. And instead of proceeding as though the fraudulent scheme began in 2005,
    Lozano’s lawyer stated at sentencing that Lozano had benefited from the
    scheme for five years. If any aspect of the sentencing reflects a mutual under-
    standing of the parties that the scheme begin in 2005, I have not found it.
    In the end, we are faced with (1) an indictment specifically encompassing
    pre-2005 activity; (2) a plea hearing at which Lozano expressed her under-
    standing that those sections of the indictment were part of her offense conduct;
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    and (3) and a sentencing hearing at which no one objected to what should have
    been the elephant in the room. From all of this, it is easy to conclude that Chief
    Judge Hinojosa committed no error in his restitution order.
    II.
    Even if there were unobjected-to error, it would have to be plain or obvi-
    ous to merit correction. Because the majority characterizes the factual proffer
    at the plea hearing as “unambiguously defin[ing] the temporal scope of the
    offense of conviction,” it concludes that the error was plain.
    Such a holding gives too little credit to Chief Judge Hinojosa, who care-
    fully asked for and received Lozano’s assurance that she understood that the
    overt-acts section was part of Count Two. If the government, in opening its
    proffer by referencing the narrower timeframe specifically related to the La
    Hacienda clinic, intended to disclaim the factual background laid out in Count
    Two, Chief Judge Hinojosa heard no such indication.
    Additionally, the majority’s disposition of the two issues is strikingly
    incongruent. According to the majority’s theory, there is sufficient evidence to
    show that the parties mutually understood the fraudulent scheme to include
    the Mission Clinic activities, or at least enough evidence that any error was
    not plain, but there is also enough evidence that the court plainly erred by
    including pre-2005 activities in the indictment. This is a hard pill to swallow
    when one considers that it was Mission Clinic that saw pre-2005 fraudulent
    activities, and there was nothing special about April 2005 for Mission Clinic.
    For the parties mutually to have understood the scheme to include Mission
    Clinic but not to reach before April 2005 would mean they arrived at an under-
    standing that differed dramatically from the reality of the scheme and the
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    details admitted as part of Count Two. Though it was within their ambit to
    come to such an agreement, Chief Judge Hinojosa did nothing reprehensible in
    failing to intuit this strange definition of the scheme without some indication
    from the parties.
    III.
    Even if there were plain error affecting Lozano’s substantial rights, 5 we
    can exercise our discretion to grant relief only if the error “seriously affect[s]
    the fairness, integrity or public reputation of judicial proceedings.” United
    States v. Escalante-Reyes, 
    689 F.3d 415
    , 419 (5th Cir. 2012) (en banc) (altera-
    tion in original) (quoting Puckett v. United States, 
    556 U.S. 129
    , 135 (2009)).
    Our discretion is not properly invoked just because the first three prongs of the
    plain-error test are met. 
    Id. at 425.
    This is not the “rare” case that demands
    correction on plain error. 6 Lozano was given notice that her restitution would
    account for pre-2005 fraud, and she took no advantage of the opportunity to
    object. No one denies that she participated in the included fraud, and that is
    confirmed by her pleading guilty to Count Two.
    The panel majority gives short shrift to the exercise of its discretion,
    pointing out only that this court has exercised its discretion in similar restitu-
    tion cases and that the error here increased the award by over $80,000. Nei-
    ther of these is a convincing reason for the rare exercise of discretion to grant
    plain-error relief.
    We are not bound to correct one error on plain-error review just because
    5 There is no dispute that a restitution award $80,000 in excess of the maximum
    authorized by statute would affect substantial rights.
    6   See United States v. Dominguez Benitez, 
    542 U.S. 74
    , 83 n.9 (2004).
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    we have done so before for the same type of error. That would run counter to
    the express instruction that the fourth prong “is meant to be applied on a case-
    specific and fact-intensive basis.” 
    Puckett, 556 U.S. at 142
    . Even if we identify
    a particular type of error that (unlike this one) generally calls into question the
    integrity of the system, individual cases may still have countervailing factors.
    
    Id. at 143.
    Here we do not even have the sort of error that will generally work
    such a damaging effect to the judicial system (in easy contrast to Puckett, which
    concerned the government’s breaching a plea agreement).
    Perhaps the majority means to say that we should exercise our discretion
    because it would seriously affect the fairness, integrity, and public reputation
    of judicial proceedings if similar errors were not treated identically on review;
    the notion might be that because we have repeatedly exercised our discretion
    in similar past cases, disparate treatment now might undermine the concepts
    of consistency and equal justice and thus might damage public confidence. Our
    discretion is strictly limited, however, to “exceptional circumstances” 7 in which
    “the error seriously affect[s] the fairness, integrity or public reputation of
    judicial proceedings.” 
    Id. at 135
    (emphasis added) (internal quotation marks
    omitted). The fourth prong does not instruct us to examine whether the man-
    ner in which we correct errors affects the fairness or public reputation of judi-
    cial proceedings, which would be in serious tension with the requirement that
    we give personalized attention to the nitty-gritty of individual cases.
    It is also not enough that the increase was $80,000. Justifying the exer-
    cise of discretion merely by citing the higher restitution collapses the fourth
    7   United States v. Atkinson, 
    297 U.S. 157
    , 160 (1966).
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    prong into the third. “[E]ven if an increase in a sentence be seen as inevitable
    ‘substantial’ in one sense it does not inevitably affect the fairness, integrity, or
    public reputation of judicial process and proceedings.” United States v. Ellis,
    
    564 F.3d 370
    , 378–79 (5th Cir. 2009). Assuming arguendo that the size of a
    sentence or restitution increase would be enough to satisfy the fourth prong,
    the inclusion of the pre-2005 fraud increased the award by only 27.7%―an
    unreasonably low bar for exercising our discretion.
    We have no reason to exercise discretion to correct the error. Lozano had
    the knowledge and opportunity to object that would have allowed Chief Judge
    Hinojosa to consider this argument in the first instance, and Lozano was not
    wronged by a prosecutorial double-cross or other misconduct. Instead, she asks
    us to consider it, in the first instance, to help her escape restitution for her
    fraudulent conduct.
    A relevant consideration for fairness is whether other record evidence
    supports the punishment. See 
    Escalante-Reyes, 689 F.3d at 425
    . Lozano’s
    guilty plea was made after Chief Judge Hinojosa diligently ensured that she
    understood the contents of the count to which she was pleading. It is highly
    unlikely that the judge’s error, even if he committed one, is sufficiently damag-
    ing to the judicial system that we must upset the distribution of responsibilities
    in the justice system.
    Chief Judge Hinojosa committed no error when he defined the temporal
    scope of Lozano’s fraudulent scheme by the specifics of the indictment, sup-
    ported by Lozano’s other actions. Additionally, even if the judge erred, the
    mistake was not plain just because the sentence deviated from an unspoken
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    understanding of the parties. And the fairness, integrity, and public reputa-
    tion of judicial proceedings are not seriously called into question when a con-
    victed felon, on account of her own poor performance in court, is called to
    account for wrongdoing she actually committed.
    The Supreme Court directs that relief for unobjected-to error should be
    extremely rare. The correct test should be something like this:
    A district judge’s misbehavior in imposing an unchallenged sentence
    should entitle the defendant to resentencing only if reasonable adults,
    upon learning of the sentence, and knowing all the facts and circum-
    stances, would walk down the street shaking their heads in despair,
    wondering what has become of our system of ordered liberty.
    No one will despair because of this sentence. Lozano spent five years taking
    advantage of an ailing doctor to bilk the government of over $371,000, admitted
    to all the facts necessary to show her knowing engagement in the scheme, and
    was made to pay for the full five years because she neglected to tell the court
    that she and the government understood the scheme to stretch only one year.
    I respectfully dissent. 8
    8 See generally 
    Escalante-Reyes, 689 F.3d at 431
    –49 (Smith, J., dissenting); Edward
    Goolsby, Comment, Why So Serious? Taking the Word “Seriously” More Seriously in Plain
    Error Review of Federal Sentencing Appeals, 51 HOUSTON LAW REVIEW 1449 (2014).
    16