United States v. Steven Randall Neal -Eastern District of Kentucky at Lexington
Split Score
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Case Summary
Disposition
Affirmed
The Sixth Circuit affirmed Steven Randall Neal’s 292-month sentence for attempting to entice a minor, holding that two sexual assaults he committed against the victim were properly treated as relevant conduct at sentencing under U.S.S.G. § 1B1.3 and that the district court reasonably applied the cross-reference to the aggravated-sexual-abuse guideline and other enhancements. The court also rejected Neal’s substantive-reasonableness challenge and declined to decide whether 18 U.S.C. § 2422(b) is inherently a continuing offense, merely assuming (without resolving) that it is for purposes of the case.
Circuit Split Identified
Legal Issue
Whether 18 U.S.C. § 2422(b) constitutes a continuing offense that may be charged in a single count covering a multi-year pattern of online enticement, or whether each discrete enticement episode is a separate offense requiring separate counts.
Circuit Positions
§ 2422(b) is a continuing offense; a single count can cover a course of enticement over time.
§ 2422(b) is not a continuing offense; separate enticement acts must be charged in separate counts.
Conflict Summary
The Third, Fifth, and Tenth Circuits (and the Sixth Circuit in this opinion by assumption) permit the government to charge § 2422(b) as a continuing offense spanning a lengthy period, while the Eleventh Circuit has suggested that charging multiple discrete enticement acts in one count is improper because each act constitutes a separate offense.