Violation of conditions of supervised release; Finding that defendant had committed a crime; Whether any error was harmless

The court held that any error in the district court’s finding as to one of defendant-Kidd’s alleged supervised release condition violations was harmless where he admitted three other violations that would have supported revocation of his supervised release. Kidd was found to have violated the terms of his supervised release by failing to enroll in either a substance abuse or mental health treatment program, lying about doing so, failing to appear for a drug test, and by being charged with a state misdemeanor for assault and stalking. Kidd only contested the state misdemeanor allegation. After a hearing where it heard evidence from law-enforcement officers, the district court ruled that a preponderance of the evidence indicated that Kidd had committed the misdemeanor. Because he had violated four conditions of his supervised release, the district court revoked his supervised release in both of his federal cases and sentenced Kidd to 14 months. Kidd argued that it “should have been highly skeptical of the alleged victim’s unsworn statements to” two law enforcement officers. He noted the lack of physical evidence and claimed her allegations were made in revenge due to “an attempted ‘romantic relationship[.]’” The court noted that “weighing conflicting evidence and picking which story is more persuasive is the district court’s job, not ours on clear error review.” In any event, it concluded that any error on this issue would not have resulted in a different outcome. The court explained that Kidd had conceded to committing three other Grade C violations, and one violation was enough to support revocation. Moreover, he would have been subject to the same 8- to 14-month guideline recommendation even if the state offense had been excluded. Based on its previous contacts with Kidd, the district court “thought it best for Kidd to be incarcerated ‘as long as possible,’ resulting in the 14-month sentence.” Affirmed.