Second Circuit calls out district judge for sloppy sentencing work

Whenever I am struggling to figure out why some circuit courts are so critical of the sentencing work of district judges, I try to recall that at least a few district judges merit criticism for their sentencing efforts.  Today’s decision by the Second Circuit in US v. Benjamin, No. 05-3677 (2d Cir. Sept. 27, 2007) (available here), highlights how a few bad apples can make the entire district court bunch look bad.  Though all of Benjamin must be read for context, here is the telling final substantive paragraph:

This is, therefore, the third case in two years in which Judge Elfvin failed in the initial sentencing proceeding to comply with the requirements of notice and explanation for the imposition of a non-Guidelines sentence and then, on remand, failed to follow a direction of this court to comply with those requirements.  This pattern of behavior is disturbing evidence of willfulness.  The need to remove Judge Elfvin from this case being self-evident, we order reassignment to a different judge.

UPDATE:  As a commentor notes, this story from New York Law Journal has more details about this Benjamin decision.  Here is one interesting tid-bit from the story:

[Neal Benjamin’s attorney, John] Lavin, who has been working on the case for 10 years, said Thursday he was disappointed by the ruling but not surprised.  “Judge Elfvin has on a couple of occasions been his own boss and I believe the 2nd Circuit doesn’t want him to be that,” Lavin said. “He’s a maverick judge and I mean that with the best intentions.”