Usdc-Wawse
Amy & Vicky v. United States District Court for the Western District
Opinion
Opinion
This is a petition for a writ of mandamus filed pursuant to 18 U.S.C. § 3771 , the Crime Victims Rights Act (“CVRA”).
This matter has previously been on appeal, see United States v. Kennedy, 643 F.3d 1251 (9th Cir.2011) (“Kennedy ”), and a three-judge panel of this court affirmed defendant’s conviction and sentence but vacated the prior restitution order entered by the district court. In so doing, the panel applied United States v. Laney, 189 F.3d 954, 965 (9th Cir.1999) (holding that 18 U.S.C. § 2259 “incorporates a requirement of proximate causation” based in part on the “proximate result” language in 18 U.S.C. § 2259 (b)(3)(F)), and concluded that for purposes of determining causation, “a court must identify a causal connection between the defendant’s offense conduct and the victim’s specific losses” before awarding restitution under 18 U.S.C. § 2259 . See Kennedy, supra, 643 F.3d at 1262 . The panel then remanded for further proceedings.
On remand, the district court denied restitution to petitioner “Amy” but awarded petitioner “Vicky” $4,545.08 in restitution on August 24, 2012 and October 11, 2012, respectively. Petitioners Amy and Vicky challenge these district…