## Facts

- Juan Manuel “Manny” Cruzado-Laureano was elected mayor of Vega Alta, Puerto Rico, in November 2000.
- Soon after taking office, he engaged in a public-corruption scheme involving extortion and money laundering, including demanding kickbacks on municipal contracts and diverting funds for personal gain.
- He routed proceeds through personal and family-connected accounts and businesses.
- After an FBI investigation, he was indicted in 2001 and convicted by a jury in 2002 on multiple corruption-related offenses, including extortion and money laundering.
- On a prior appeal, the convictions were affirmed, but the sentence was vacated because the district court used the wrong Guidelines manual; the case returned to the district court for resentencing under the correct version.
- On remand, the district court recalculated the Guidelines range and imposed a bottom-of-the-range sentence; Cruzado appealed again challenging several Guidelines applications.

## Issues

1. Whether the district court impermissibly increased the sentence by applying both an offense-specific enhancement for a high-level public official and the U.S.S.G. § 3B1.3 enhancement for abuse of a position of trust based on the same public-office abuse.
2. Whether the district court otherwise correctly applied the contested Sentencing Guidelines provisions in recalculating the advisory range on remand.

## Decision

- The First Circuit affirmed most of the district court’s Guidelines determinations.
- The court held the sentence was improperly increased by cumulative application of two provisions addressing the same abuse of elected office.
- The court concluded that applying U.S.S.G. § 3B1.3 on top of the offense guideline’s public-official enhancement constituted impermissible double counting under the circumstances.
- The sentence was vacated and the case remanded for resentencing, without directing that a different length of imprisonment must result.

## Legal Principles

- Sentencing enhancements may not be stacked when both punish the same aspect of the defendant’s conduct and the Guidelines already account for that factor through a specific offense characteristic.
- When a public-corruption offense guideline increases the offense level based on the defendant’s status as a high-level or sensitive public official, a further increase under U.S.S.G. § 3B1.3 for abuse of public trust is improper if it rests on the same office-based misconduct.
- On resentencing after a limited remand, appellate review focuses on whether the district court correctly applied the identified Guidelines provisions to the established facts.

## Conclusion

The First Circuit vacated Cruzado-Laureano’s resentencing because the district court double counted his abuse of elected office by adding the § 3B1.3 abuse-of-trust enhancement to an offense-specific public-official enhancement, while otherwise upholding the remaining Guidelines calculations.


United States v. Cruzado-Laureano, 440 F.3d 44 (1st Cir. 2006)