CSC II sentencing departure; Reasonableness; Proportionality; People v Steanhouse; People v Dixon-Bey; Uncharged conduct; People v Beck; Inaccurate information; Remorse; Abuse of authority; OV 7; Victim exploitation; People v Nantelle; Exercise of the right to jury trial; People v Wesley

The court held that the trial court did not abuse its discretion by departing upward from the guidelines and again sentencing defendant to concurrent terms of 7 to 15 years for two CSC II convictions after remand for resentencing. Defendant, a former priest, was convicted for sexually abusing a 14-year-old victim in 1984. After remand for resentencing due to a scoring error, the trial court departed upward from the corrected 12-to-36-month guidelines range. The court first held that the trial court properly considered uncharged conduct because Beck bars use of acquitted conduct, not uncharged conduct, and trial testimony suggested defendant abused another minor. The court reasoned that the trial court did not err by inferring more victims from evidence that defendant targeted “a vulnerable part of society.” The court next rejected defendant’s inaccurate-information claim because the trial court’s statement that he abused the victim for “several years” reasonably referred to grooming and exploitation before the charged assault. The court also held that the trial court could consider defendant’s lack of remorse, noting it found his allocution unconvincing because he previously “blamed the victim” and claimed anti-Catholic bias. The court further held that the trial court properly considered defendant’s abuse of authority despite that factor being part of the CSC II statute under which he was convicted because the guidelines did not adequately reflect his “‘extraordinary and egregious abuse of authority’” as a priest. Finally, the court held that the sentence was not punishment for exercising the right to trial because the challenged remarks addressed the “observable severity” of the victim’s psychological injury, not defendant’s refusal to plead guilty. Affirmed.