Plea Offer Expires Before the Court’s Plea Cutoff
Yvonne Park is charged with wire fraud and aggravated identity theft. The prosecutor offers a written plea agreement: plead guilty to wire fraud only, stipulate to a $250,000 loss, offense level 22, criminal history category I, guideline range 41–51 months, and dismiss the identity-theft count. The offer states it expires March 15 at 5:00 p.m. The court’s plea cutoff is March 20, and trial is April 28. On March 14, Park learns her mother is terminally ill and wants to delay the plea to care for her. Park also gives counsel bank records suggesting the loss is closer to $180,000. The prosecutor refuses to extend the deadline, saying the offer dies March 15. The paralegal must calculate the sentencing exposure, identify procedural options, and prepare a client memo. Assume the loss table adds 12 levels at $250,000 or more and 10 levels at $150,000–$249,999, and that aggravated identity theft carries a mandatory consecutive 24 months.
1. Calculate the guideline range under the plea’s $250,000 figure and under the $180,000 figure. What is the practical difference?
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Under the plea’s $250,000 figure, the stipulated offense level is 22 and criminal history category I yields 41–51 months. If the loss is treated as $180,000, the loss enhancement drops from 12 to 10 levels, producing offense level 20 and a range of 33–41 months. That is an eight-month difference at the bottom and a ten-month difference at the top, although the ranges overlap at 41 months. The practical point is not simply the guideline delta. If Park goes to trial and is convicted of aggravated identity theft, the court must impose a mandatory consecutive 24 months on top of the fraud sentence, so the total exposure could be 57–65 months under the lower loss figure or 65–75 months under the higher figure, before considering other enhancements. The $180,000 records may also be disputed by the probation office and may not be accepted. The paralegal should prepare a side-by-side worksheet for counsel and flag that these are estimates, not a sentence prediction.
2. What procedural options exist to preserve the plea offer after March 15, and what are the risks?
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The March 15 date is a contractual deadline in the plea agreement, not a jurisdictional bar. Counsel can immediately send a written request to the prosecutor to extend the offer to March 20 and, if refused, file a notice of intent to plead guilty and ask the court for a plea hearing before the cutoff. If the court’s calendar cannot accommodate that, counsel can ask the court to accept a plea after March 20 for good cause, while recognizing that the prosecutor may withdraw the offer once it expires. A court may accept a plea after its own cutoff only with leave and if the trial date and victims’ rights are not disrupted. The risks are real: the prosecutor may treat the offer as withdrawn, the court may refuse a late plea, and Park may lose the dismissal of the identity-theft count. A continuance of the trial date does not automatically extend the plea offer. The paralegal should document every communication and ask counsel to confirm any extension in writing before Park relies on it.
3. What should the paralegal include in the client memo and the file?
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The memo should be factual and reviewed by counsel before it goes to the client. It should list the March 15 offer deadline, the March 20 court cutoff, and the April 28 trial date; compare the 41–51 month range with the 33–41 month range and the consecutive 24-month risk; and explain the difference between a guideline estimate and a mandatory consecutive sentence. It should identify the options: accept before March 15, seek a written extension, ask the court for a late plea, or proceed toward trial. It should record Park’s reasons for wanting to delay without including unnecessary medical details. The file should contain the bank records, a guideline worksheet, a communication log, a draft motion for leave to plead late, and a draft notice of intent to plead. If Park chooses to accept, the paralegal should prepare the plea paperwork and confirm the deadline in writing; if she declines, the file should show that counsel explained the consequences and that the decision was hers.