U.S. v. Collins

Dist. Ct. did not commit plain error in denying defendant’s request to withdraw his guilty plea on two drug charges, even though defendant argued that at sentencing when he received statutory mandatory minimum 180-month term of incarceration, government breached plea agreement by failing to tell Dist. Ct. that he had cooperated with govt. during its investigation of different matter. Record showed that prior to sentencing defendant had actually failed to cooperate with government by failing to meet with prosecutors about case in which government had planned to call defendant as witness. While it was possible that government had breached agreement, said fact was not sufficient to warrant granting defendant’s request to withdraw guilty plea because any possible breach was not “clear” or “obvious” as required under plain error standard. Moreover, defendant was not eligible for any safety-valve sentencing relief, and substantial assistance to government would have been only way for defendant to avoid instant mandatory minimum sentence. Also, defendant did not establish that disclosure of any positive cooperation would have changed his sentence so as to support his request for discretionary plea withdrawal.