United States v. Victor M. Camacho

Victor Camacho is a federal civilian employee serving as an Air Reserve Technician in the 749th Aircraft Maintenance Squadron at the Travis Air Force Base in California. Camacho allegedly stole a home theater system from the Base Exchange; in response, the squadron commander sanctioned Camacho for theft. Nearly one year later, the United States Attorney’s office filed an information charging Camacho for the same alleged theft, as a misdemeanor violation of 18 U.S.C. § 641. Camacho filed a motion to dismiss the information on double jeopardy-grounds, arguing that the sanctions his commander imposed constituted punishment barring his subsequent prosecution. We have jurisdiction over the district court’s collateral order under 18 U.S.C. § 1291 , and we review de novo. United States v. Schiller, 120 F.3d 192, 193 (9th Cir.1997). We affirm the district court’s denial of Camacho’s motion to dismiss.

I. Facts

On August 26, 2002, Victor Camacho went to the Travis Air Force Base Exchange and bought one home theater system. He left the Exchange with two, the second of which he allegedly stole. A Base Exchange employee alerted Camacho’s supervisor to the incident, and the supervisor asked…