Free Sentencing Memorandum - District Court of Arizona - Arizona

1 JON M. SANDS Federal Public Defender 2 District of Arizona 850 West Adams, Suite 201 3 Phoenix, Arizona 85007-2730 (602) 382-2751 4 Telephone:(602) 382-2800 Facsimile: 5 KAREN M. WILKINSON, #014095 6 Asst. Federal Public Defender Attorney for Defendant 7 [email protected] 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 -vsRichard Anthony Dennis, Defendant. Richard Dennis, through counsel, submits this disposition memorandum for the Court's consideration at his sentencing set for November 20, 2006 at 4:30 p.m. The year 2006 has been a difficult one for Mr. Dennis. His father passed away on January 29, 2006. He was extremely close to his father, and sat with him in United States of America, Plaintiff, No. CR-03-987-PHX-DGC DISPOSITION MEMORANDUM IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT DISTRICT OF ARIZONA

21 the hospital for the three to four weeks before he died. A couple months later, Mr. 22 Dennis became suicidal, and voluntarily entered a psychiatric ward at Good 23 Samaritan Hospital. A few months after that, his brother, with whom he was living, 24 had a couple heart attacks and ended up in the hospital. His heart problems are 25 extremely serious, and he now is on a waiting list for a heart transplant. More 26 recently, Mr. Dennis returned to the hospital because he was suffering from a severe 27 anxiety attack and high blood pressure. His ongoing problems of mental illness and 28

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1 substance abuse made what would be an extremely difficult period of time under any 2 circumstances, one that nearly put Richard Dennis over the edge. 3 Richard Dennis needs help and stability, but he doesn't need prison. He 4 is deathly afraid of prison, and this fear merely exacerbates his anxiety and 5 6 7 8 9 10 depression. His fear of prison does not provide the proverbial "kick" that is badly needed. It terrifies him to the point where he becomes immobilized at best and suicidal at worst. His history shows that he does best when in a structured residential substance abuse program. He successfully completed such programs at Crossroads while on pretrial supervision and then again during his probation. He asks that the

11 Court allow him to return to a residential substance abuse program such as 12 Crossroads, or to the Court contracted facility, Recovery Homes. 13 Mr. Dennis also objects to the Probation Officer's report because it 14 misleadingly omits certain information. For example, Mr. Dennis's phone was 15 disconnected while he was sitting next to his father's side in the hospital as his father 16 was dying. Regarding his alleged failure to pay his subsistence fee at BSSW, he has 17 always disputed this allegation, and continues to do so. (See letter separately sent to 18 the Court.) Mr. Dennis missed some TASC sessions, but this occurred while his 19 brother was in the hospital after he had his heart attacks. As a result of missing 20 TASC sessions, Mr. Dennis was terminated from TASC, and cut-off from his anti21 depressant medication, Celexa. He asked for permission to go back to TASC, but was 22 denied by the Probation Officer. While rules may be rules, the efficacy of denying 23 a depressed patient medication must be questioned. Mr. Dennis has gotten much 24 worse since he has been off of his medication. 25 Mr. Dennis has had difficulty getting a job because of his family 26 27 illnesses and death, and his felony conviction. He has had several leads, but they fell 28 2

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1 through. His probation officer had told him he couldn't get a job at telemarketing, 2 his previous type of employment. Because it was the only job he could find, Mr. 3 Dennis finally did take a telemarketing job at Cash Flow Direct, where he has been 4 working for about six weeks. Mr. Dennis is trying to the best of his ability. 5 For these reasons, Mr. Dennis asks that the Court allow him to get help 6 for his mental illness and substance abuse problem at a residential treatment center. 7 He asks that the Court sentence him to the least amount of prison time possible. 8 Should the Court chose to reinstate him, his probationary term would still not expire 9 until August 2, 2009. He further asks that the Probation Office assign him to a 10 11 specialty officer who is trained to work with mentally ill clients. 12 13 14 15 16 Respectfully submitted: November 13, 2006. JON M. SANDS Federal Public Defender s/ Karen M. Wilkinson KAREN M. WILKINSON Asst. Federal Public Defender

I hereby certify that on November 13, 2006, I electronically transmitted the attached 17 document to the Clerk's Office using the ECF System for filing and transmittal of a Notice of Electronic Filing to the following ECF registrants: 18 19 DARCY CEROW Assistant U.S. Attorney 20 Two Renaissance Square 40 N. Central, Suite 1200 21 Phoenix, Arizona 85004-4408 22 Copy mailed to: 23 ADELINA BUSTAMANTE U.S. Probation Office 24 230 N. First Avenue, Suite 406 Phoenix, Arizona 85003-1725 25 26 RICHARD DENNIS Defendant 27 s/ S. Bereolos S. Bereolos 28 3

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