Leroy Serapo v. United States

Serapo and 15 codefendants were indicted for conspiracy to import marijuana and conspiracy to distribute it. A superseding indictment charged him as an accessory to the use of a telephone to facilitate a conspiracy to distribute marijuana. He pleaded guilty to that charge and the earlier indictment was dismissed.

At sentencing the district judge provided an opportunity to comment on the presentence report which described the smuggling operations, the subject of the first indictment. Neither Serapo nor his counsel denied the facts in the presentence report regarding the use of Serapo’s property for the storage and transportation of marijuana.

The district judge said she had heard the trials of two codefendants and from that testimony she believed Serapo was more involved in the conspiracy than he had admitted. She sentenced Serapo to imprisonment for one year, well within the maximum sentence of two years and $15,000 fine.

Serapo asserts that the judge based the sentence on information obtained at the other trials. This, he says, was a denial of due process because the earlier testimony was not disclosed and he had no opportunity to rebut the information that influenced his…