United States Ninth Circuit

A district court must consider all reliable evidence of cleanup costs in its determination, per U.S.S.G. section 2Q1.3(b)(3), of whether a defendant's actions caused a substantial cleanup expenditure; the Government may be a victim entitled to restitution of its site investigation costs, per section 5E1.1; mere attempt to influence a witness is sufficient to trigger the section 3C1.1 obstruction of justice enhancement.

Appellate Information

• Argued 02/13/2003
• Decided 01/28/2004
• Published 01/28/2004

Judges

• Before: BRUNETTI, T.G. NELSON, and RAWLINSON, Circuit Judges.

Court

• United States Ninth Circuit

Counsel

• For Appellees:
  
• Michael J. Sherwood,Michael J. Sherwood, P.C., Missoula, MT, for the defendant-appellant-cross-appellee., Thomas L. Sansonetti, William W. Mercer, and Kris A. McLean, U.S. Attorney's Office, Missoula, MT;  Linda Kato, Environmental Protection Agency, Denver, CO;  and Todd Aagaard and Stephanie Tai, Department of Justice, Washington, DC, for the plaintiff-appellee-cross-appellant.