In United States v. Reiche, --- F.4th ---, No. 21-30275 (9th Cir. 2022), the Court affirmed the sentence imposed on Ellen Reiche for Violence Against Railroad Carriers in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1992(a)(5).
The relevant facts were that, in order to stop a train carrying crude oil and strike a blow against the fossil fuel industry, Reiche secretly placed a shunt on the railroad tracks to tamper with the rail signaling system.
The Court held that the district court did not err in applying a sentencing enhancement pursuant to U.S.S.G. § 2A5.2(a)(2) for recklessly endangering the safety of a mass transportation vehicle.
"It does not take a locomotive engineer to recognize that forcing a freight train to come to a sudden stop endangers the safety of those on and around it. Indeed, it is a common trope even in cartoons and comics that a speeding train cannot stop quickly and may derail in trying to do so. And common sense underscores the danger of having a speeding vehicle stop suddenly: Imagine if someone placed nails on a road to cause a flat tire in a bid to stop cars. Perhaps the car could safely come to a stop—but any reasonable person would recognize that this is a risky thing to do because the car, for example, may careen off the road or spin out of control."
The Court further held that the district court properly denied a reduction for acceptance of responsibility post-trial.
