Sentencing Memorandum for Jana Ortiz

Question 25: Sentencing Memorandum for Jana Ortiz

Your role

You represent Jana Ortiz at sentencing for nonprofit embezzlement. Draft a mitigation memorandum of no more than 650 words using only the supplied record. The memorandum must confront the offense and victim harm, request a concrete sentence, and must not invent trauma, addiction, illness, or family facts.

Governing law

Assume the following sentencing rules apply:

1. The court must impose a sentence sufficient but not greater than necessary to reflect seriousness, promote respect for law, provide just punishment, deter, protect the public, and support needed treatment or training.

2. The court considers the advisory guideline range, offense circumstances, defendant's history and characteristics, available sentences, restitution, unwarranted disparity, and victim impact.

3. Jana's correctly calculated advisory custody range is 24 to 30 months after credit for acceptance of responsibility. The court may vary but must explain the reasons.

4. Abuse of a position of trust, repeated conduct, planning, and concealment aggravate seriousness even when already reflected partly in the guideline calculation.

5. Restitution before detection is stronger mitigation than payment after detection. Either may show acceptance but does not erase victim loss.

6. Family responsibilities justify a major variance only when the defendant provides irreplaceable care and no reasonable alternative exists. Ordinary hardship to relatives is relevant but not extraordinary.

7. A controlled medical condition is relevant to placement and care but does not justify a variance when correctional treatment is adequate on the supplied record.

8. Counsel must not assert unsupported diagnoses, childhood history, victim forgiveness, charitable conduct, or inability to pay. Candor about adverse facts may strengthen a bounded request.

9. Restitution terms should be realistic in light of supplied income and should not promise payment beyond demonstrated ability.

Facts

Jana, age 52, pleaded guilty to embezzling $180,000 from Harbor Youth Arts over three years through 48 false vendor reimbursements. She was finance manager and used her access to approve and conceal the payments. In one email she instructed a junior bookkeeper to code a transfer as “program supplies” without disclosing that the vendor account was hers.

The loss forced Harbor Youth Arts to suspend its after-school music program for six months. The executive director submits a statement describing layoffs and 70 children losing services. The organization does not forgive the offense.

Jana has no prior criminal record and worked continuously for 27 years. Before the audit began, she repaid $70,000 after receiving an inheritance. After pleading guilty, she paid another $30,000. Restitution balance is $80,000.

Jana earns $62,000 per year in a bookkeeping position that will remain available after sentencing. Her verified monthly disposable income after ordinary expenses is approximately $1,700.

Jana provides evening care to her father, who has Parkinson's disease. Her sister lives 20 miles away and currently provides care two days each week. The record does not show that no other arrangement is available.

Jana has controlled type 2 diabetes. The presentence report states that the correctional system can provide the required medication and diet.

Twelve letters describe Jana as reliable, remorseful, and supportive of coworkers. None identifies previously undisclosed charitable work. Jana asks counsel to say that gambling addiction and childhood abuse caused the offense, but no medical, treatment, or personal record supports either statement.

The prosecutor requests 27 months. Probation recommends 24 months. Jana asks for probation. A sentence of 12 months and one day would preserve ordinary good-time eligibility under the supplied correctional rule. Supervised release may include restitution payments.

Assignment

Draft the final memorandum, no more than 650 words. It must:

• Acknowledge the repeated abuse of trust and concrete victim harm.
• Present the no-record history, work history, acceptance, and repayment accurately.
• Distinguish pre-detection and post-plea restitution.
• Address family care and diabetes without overstating either.
• Refuse unsupported gambling-addiction and childhood-abuse claims.
• Request a concrete custodial sentence and explain why it is sufficient.
• Propose a realistic restitution condition from the supplied monthly income.
• Avoid attacking the victim or treating repayment as cancellation of the offense.

Q25 key (Sentencing Memorandum)

1. The memorandum must candidly identify $180,000, 48 planned reimbursements, abuse of finance access, the coding instruction, and the six-month program shutdown affecting 70 children. Missed: minimization destroys credibility at sentencing.
2. It should distinguish $70,000 repaid before detection from $30,000 after the plea, state the $80,000 balance, and present repayment as acceptance rather than cancellation of harm. Missed: restitution is overstated or its strongest timing fact is lost.
3. Proper mitigation is no record, 27 years of work, verified continued employment, acceptance, substantial repayment, letters, and realistic future restitution. Do not assert gambling addiction, childhood abuse, victim forgiveness, or unsupported charity. Missed: invented sympathy creates a false filing.
4. Family care is relevant but not irreplaceable because the sister already assists and alternatives are not excluded. Diabetes informs placement but does not support a variance on the supplied medical record. Missed: ordinary hardship is presented as an extraordinary legal predicate.
5. A defensible concrete request is 12 months and one day, followed by supervised release and restitution of approximately $1,500 per month subject to court adjustment. Probation alone does not adequately address repeated abuse of trust and victim harm. Missed: the request is either unbounded leniency or no mitigation position.
6. The memorandum should explain that the below-guideline sentence still imposes custody, preserves employment and repayment capacity, and avoids more punishment than necessary for a first offender who has accepted responsibility. Missed: the court is given biography without a sentencing rationale.
7. Any memorandum within 650 words that reaches those destinations, uses only supplied facts, and treats the victim respectfully satisfies the drafting task. Missed: eloquence substitutes for candor, concrete sentence, or executable restitution.