zlacker

>>tafda+(OP)
20 years is the maximum, not what he'll get. Skimming the Federal Sentencing Guidelines, I make it:

* A base level of 14 for an obstruction of justice charge (§2J1.2)

* -2 for acceptance of responsibility (§3E1.1)

Assuming no previous criminal history, that's a guideline sentence of 10-16 months. If he can get it down one more point to a level 11 sentence, that's a Zone B sentence and can be entirely served on probation.

The DoJ press release is at https://www.justice.gov/usao-cdca/pr/santa-barbara-county-ma..., but the plea agreement isn't available (yet), which would indicate if they've agreed on an offence level and any adjustments.

EDIT: Found the plea agreement; see comment in thread

>>waiwai+q6
There's no charge other than obstruction of justice? That's one of those crimes that shouldn't be valid at all without an actual crime in the background. If no crime other than obstruction of justice was committed, how can justice have been obstructed?

>>thauma+xr
You make an excellent point. When I was in jail there were many people who were charged only with obstruction of justice or resisting arrest. Often what would happen is law enforcement would try to arrest someone or search their property and the suspect would interfere with the process. Later, whatever caused the police to take action in the first place was nullified, either by reason of being illegal or having no factual basis, but the suspect was now still in jail for potentially years based on their (possibly) rightful action in trying to stop the police from whatever they were not supposed to be doing.

Sometimes it can just be a lose/lose scenario once you come to the attention of law enforcement. If at all possible, never put yourself in a situation, or associate with those who are going to bring heat upon you from the police.