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He Who Steals My Trash Pays Cash?

By Jane Shay Wald

In this rather odd sentencing case, the Eighth Circuit trashed the restitution order that had been imposed by the District Court for the District of North Dakota on janitorial supervisor James A. Chalupnik. United States v. Chalupnik, 2008 WL 268997 (8th Cir. Feb. 1, 2008).

The decision threw out janitor Chalupnik's obligation to pay BMG Columbia House ('BMG') mandatory restitution of $78,818. BMG, the mail-order CD and DVD business, was found in this odd case to be a victim of the copyright misdemeanor crime to which Chalupnik pleaded guilty. Initially, Chalupnik had been charged with felony mail theft, a charge dropped in favor of the plea to copyright misdemeanor. Granted, it is far more pleasant to be charged with a misdemeanor than a felony; if those are the choices on the table, then copyright misdemeanor. But neither the pled-to crime nor the dropped 'mail theft' one seems to match up with what happened here. Chalupnik's appeal addresses solely the restitution order, since Chalupnik pleaded guilty to the copyright misdemeanor. Still, the most interesting aspect of this case is the judicial pas-de-deux between the admitted crime, and how (and whether) the punishment meets the crime.

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