United States v. Ronald Stump

Ronald Stump pled guilty to one count of submitting a false test report to the Department of Energy in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1001 and one count of filing a false tax return in violation of 26 U.S.C. § 7206 . He was sentenced on 3 August 1989 to five years imprisonment on the false statements count and three years probation on the tax count, with the conditions that he forfeit his only bank account and pay $125,000 in restitution.

On 27 November 1989 Stump filed a timely motion to reduce his sentence pursuant to Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure 35(b). The government did not oppose Stump’s motion, and later explained that it “saw no need to respond to the motion since no new facts or circumstances were presented to justify a reduction in sentence.” Government’s Motion For Reconsideration Of Defendant’s Reduction Of Sentence at 2. The district court granted the motion on 12 January 1990 and reduced Stump’s term of imprisonment from five to two years. All other terms and conditions of the original sentence were left undisturbed.

On 19 January 1990 the government filed a motion requesting the district court to reconsider its order reducing Stump’s sentence. The court granted…