United States v. Rudy Wahchumwah

Good Law
472 F. App'x 623
United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth CircuitMarch 29, 201208-30476California269 words

Opinion

Opinion

ORDER

Rudy Lee Wahchumwah was charged with, and convicted of, failing to register as a sex offender under the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act (SOR-NA). After we affirmed his conviction in a memorandum disposition, see United States v. Wahchumwah, 409 Fed.Appx. 130, 132 (9th Cir.2010), Wahchumwah filed a petition for rehearing and a motion to dismiss the indictment. The motion to dismiss was predicated on our opinion in United States v. Valverde, 628 F.3d 1159 (9th Cir.2010), in which we held that SOR-NA was not applicable until August 1, 2008 for those individuals whose convictions predated the enactment of SORNA. See id. at 1160 .

Wahchumwah’s conviction for a sex offense predated the enactment of SORNA and his failure to register occurred prior to August 1, 2008. Because SORNA did not apply to Wahchumwah prior to August 1, 2008, his indictment for a violation of SOR-NA’s registration requirements was invalid.

We hereby grant Wahchumwah’s motion to dismiss the indictment, vacate our prior disposition, and remand this case to the district court for dismissal of the indictment against Wahchumwah. This action renders the petition for rehearing moot.

Appellant’s…

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