United States of America v. Dean Brooks

23-6145
United States of America v. Dean Brooks
United States Court of Appeals
For the Second Circuit
August Term 2023
Argued: February 14, 2024
Decided: April 17, 2024
No. 23-6145
U NITED S TATES OF AMERICA,
Appellee,
v.
D EAN B ROOKS,
Defendant-Appellant.
Appeal from the United States District Court
for the Northern District of New York
No. 20-cr-00118, David N. Hurd, Judge.
Before: KEARSE , PARKER , and PÉREZ , Circuit Judges.
Pending before this Court is Defendant-Appellant Dean Brooks’s motion to
reinstate an appeal from an order of the United States District Court for the
Northern District of New York (Hurd, J.). Brooks filed a motion on March 28, 2024,
requesting that we reinstate his appeal because the district court failed to take any
action after this Court issued its order. To date, the district court has not taken any
action. Brooks’s motion is GRANTED, and the order of the district court is

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VACATED AND REMANDED, again. Further, we ORDER that the case be
reassigned to a different district judge on remand.
APPEAL REMANDED.
RAJIT S. DOSANJH (Geoffrey J.L. Brown, on the
brief), for Carla B. Freedman, United States
Attorney for the Northern District of New York,
Syracuse, NY, for Appellee.
MELISSA A. TUOHEY , Office of the Federal Public
Defender, Northern District of New York,
Syracuse, NY, for Defendant-Appellant.
PER C URIAM∗:
This is the second appeal by Defendant-Appellant Dean Brooks from an 1
order of the United States District Court for the Northern District of New York 2
denying his motion to modify a special condition of his supervised release 3
pursuant to 18 U.S.C. § 3583(e)(2). Specifically, the special condition prohibits him 4
from having direct contact with any minor child—including his own children— 5
without permission from the probation office. 6
In the first appeal, we vacated the order of the district court and remanded 7
pursuant to United States v. Jacobson, 15 F.3d 19 (2d Cir. 1994), to allow the district 8
court to reconsider Brooks’s motion to modify his special condition of supervised 9
∗ Judge Amalya Kearse, a member of the panel, is temporarily unavailable. This opinion has been resolved by the
remaining two members of the panel consistent with the local rules of this Court.

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release in light of his circumstances, the applicable statutory factors, and 10
governing law. We directed the district court to reconsider Brooks’s request for 11
modification and provide an explanation for its rationale by March 28, 2024, within 12
30 days of the date of our order. See generally United States v. Brooks (“Brooks I”), 13
No. 23-6145, 2024 U.S. App. LEXIS 4457 (2d Cir. Feb. 27, 2024). 14
In this second appeal, Brooks filed a motion on March 28, 2024, requesting 15
that we reinstate his appeal because, to date, the district court has failed to take 16
any action after this Court issued its order. Brooks’s motion is GRANTED, and 17
the order of the district court is VACATED AND REMANDED again. Further, 18
we ORDER that the case be reassigned to a different district judge on remand. 19
DISCUSSION 20
“[T]he ‘mandate rule’ describes the duty of the district court on remand 21
upon receipt of the mandate, which is the appellate court’s direction to the trial 22
court[.] . . .” United States v. Ben Zvi, 242 F.3d 89, 95 (2d Cir. 2001) (some internal 23
quotation marks omitted). Barring exceptional circumstances not applicable here, 24
“the district court ‘must follow the mandate issued by an appellate court,’ and it 25
‘has no discretion in carrying out the mandate.’” Callahan v. County of Suffolk, 96 26
F.4th 362, 367 (2d Cir. 2024) (quoting Puricelli v. Argentina, 797 F.3d 213, 218 (2d 27

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Cir. 2015)). To date, the district court failed to follow our instructions “to 28
reconsider Brooks’s request for modification and provide an explanation for its 29
rationale within 30 days of the date of this order.” Brooks I, 2024 U.S. App. LEXIS 30
4457, at *4. 31
As this Court explained in Brooks I, in determining whether or how to 32
modify the conditions of supervised release, district courts are required to 33
consider the appropriate “factors set forth in section 3553(a)(1), (a)(2)(B), (a)(2)(C), 34
(a)(2)(D), (a)(4), (a)(5), (a)(6), and (a)(7).” Id. at *2 (quoting 18 U.S.C. § 3583(e)). 35
Although district courts are not required to set forth detailed findings on each 36
statutory factor, see United States v. Gammarano, 321 F.3d 311, 315 (2d Cir. 2003), a 37
district court must “adequately explain the chosen sentence to allow for 38
meaningful appellate review” when considering a motion for a sentence 39
modification, United States v. Halvon, 26 F.4th 566, 570 (2d Cir. 2022) (per curiam) 40
(quoting Chavez-Meza v. United States, 138 S. Ct. 1959, 1965 (2018)). This is not a 41
high burden to meet. “The explanation required need not be lengthy,” and must 42
simply provide “some indication of the rationale for the ruling[.]” United States v. 43
Christie, 736 F.3d 191, 196 (2d Cir. 2013). 44

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We GRANT Brooks’s motion to reinstate his appeal and again VACATE 45
AND REMAND the order of the district court to allow the district court to 46
reconsider Brooks’s motion to modify his special condition of supervised release 47
in light of his circumstances, the applicable statutory factors, and governing law. 48
We ORDER that the case be reassigned to a different district judge on remand “to 49
preserve the appearance of justice.” United States v. Robin, 553 F.2d 8, 10 (2d Cir. 50
1977) (en banc) (per curiam). 51

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