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Extracted Text (OCR)
Case 1:20-cr-00330-PAE Document 682 Filed 06/24/22 Page2of4
The Defendant contests whether the remaining four individuals—Maria Farmer, Sarah
Ransome, Teresa Helm, and Juliette Bryant—are “crime victims” within the meaning of the
CVRA. The Defendant contends, among other things, that the record does not establish that they
were under the relevant statutory age at the time of the incidents they describe or that the conduct
occurred within the time period charged in the indictment and established at trial. However, the
Court need not resolve this question because “the sentencing court’s discretion is largely
unlimited either as to the kind of information it may consider, or the source from which it may
come.” United States v. Eberhard, 525 F.3d 175, 177 (2d Cir. 2008) (cleaned up). Indeed, 18
U.S.C. § 3661 provides that “[n]o limitation shall be placed on the information concerning the
background, character, and conduct of a person convicted of an offense which a court of the
United States may receive and consider for the purpose of imposing an appropriate sentence.”
See, e.g., United States v. Garigen, No. 21-112, 2022 WL 258568, at *1 (2d Cir. Jan. 28, 2022)
(summary order) (finding no due process violation in allowing individual to speak at sentencing
even assuming they lacked “‘an express right . . . under the [CVRA],” because “the court was
certainly within its power to permit them to speak” under § 3661 and defendant “clearly was free
to object or respond to any of the statements that [individuals] made during her sentencing, and
the district court was permitted to consider all of these statements as relevant in formulating a
sentence” (cleaned up)).
Accordingly, the Court, exercising its discretion under § 3661, will permit Maria Farmer,
Ransome, Helm, and Bryant to be reasonably heard at sentencing through written submissions.
The Court will therefore allow their written submissions to be part of the record and consider
them for what they appropriately may be considered. The Court will, however, exercise its
discretion and deny their requests to make an in-person statement, to the extent they so request.
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Dates
Document Details
| Filename | DOJ-OGR-00010745.jpg |
| File Size | 732.5 KB |
| OCR Confidence | 94.7% |
| Has Readable Text | Yes |
| Text Length | 2,168 characters |
| Indexed | 2026-02-03 18:01:46.611901 |