Opinion
CRIMINAL ACTION 18-310-1
02-24-2022
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA v. HARVEY BLAKE
MEMORANDUM RE: SENTENCING
MICHAEL M. BAYLSON UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT JUDGE
At the hearing on a petition for violation of supervised release filed by the Probation Department of this Court, this case originated in the Middle District of Pennsylvania, but supervision was transferred to the undersigned. The Defendant, Harvey Blake, 62 years of age, has a very upsetting criminal history. Only counting the convictions considered timely under the Sentencing Guidelines, Defendant has accumulated 27 criminal history points, which may be a record for this Court, and clearly placed the Defendant in Category VI. However, many prior convictions were not even counted because of their age. In recent years, all of Mr. Blake's convictions have been for relatively petty crimes such as shoplifting or forgery. At the hearing on February 24, 2022, Mr. Blake did not dispute any of these facts, but asserted that he had a very difficult life and committed these crimes to provide himself and his daily needs. Of course, this is no excuse. The Court thought it was important that, for whatever additional prison time Mr. Blake should serve because of his violations of supervised release imposed in the Middle District of Pennsylvania, there should be an additional period of time where he would be under the supervision of the Probation Department of this Court to provide assistance in his living arrangements and prevention programs to help prevent Mr. Blake from being tempted for any additional criminal behavior. The Court hopes that Mr. Blake will cooperate with these measures and get the help that our Probation Department is able to provide to him.
BY THIS COURT: