United States v. Muniz-Lopez, No. 19-1086 (1st Cir. 2020)
Annotate this Case
The First Circuit reversed the condition of Appellant's supervised release that he could not contact his preteen daughter for three years without approval from his probation officer, holding that the district court imposed the condition based in part on an untranslated Spanish document in violation of the Jones Act, 48 U.S.C. 864, and the violation was prejudicial.
The daughter's mother filed a petition for protective order, written in Spanish, after Appellant threw a beer can in his daughter's direction and hit her face. The government subsequently moved to revoke Appellant's supervised release on the ground that he violated the condition that he not commit another crime. The magistrate judge issued an order finding probable cause that Appellant had committed the crime of abuse, basing its determination, in part, on the untranslated Spanish-language document. The district court revoked Appellant's supervised release and added as a condition of supervision that Appellant not contact his daughter. The First Circuit reversed and remanded the case for resentencing, holding that the government violated the Jones Act by submitting to the magistrate judge the protective order petition without supplying an English translation, and the error was prejudicial.
Some case metadata and case summaries were written with the help of AI, which can produce inaccuracies. You should read the full case before relying on it for legal research purposes.
This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.