USA v. Lonnie Lorenzo Hollingsworth, Jr.

[DO NOT PUBLISH]
In the
United States Court of Appeals
For the Eleventh Circuit
____________________
No. 22-11250
Non-Argument Calendar
____________________
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA,
Plaintiff-Appellee,
versus
LONNIE LORENZO HOLLINGSWORTH, JR.,
Defendant-Appellant.
____________________
Appeal from the United States District Court
for the Middle District of Florida
D.C. Docket No. 5:21-cr-00035-JA-PRL-1
____________________
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2 Opinion of the Court 22-11250
Before WILSON, ROSENBAUM , and L UCK , Circuit Judges.
PER CURIAM:
Lonnie Hollingsworth, Jr., appeals his conviction and sen-
tence for unlawful possession of ammunition by a convicted felon.
See 18 U.S.C. §§ 922(g)(1), 924(a)(2). Police officers found a single
round of ammunition in Hollingsworth’s backpack upon taking
him into custody for an involuntary mental-health examination un-
der Florida’s Baker Act.
See Fla. Stat. § 394.463. The district court
denied Hollingsworth’s motion to suppress the evidence, conclud-
ing that probable cause existed to detain him under the Baker Act.
Then, after finding Hollingsworth guilty at a bench trial, the court
sentenced him to three years of imprisonment, with three years of
supervised release to follow. Among the conditions of his super-
vised release, he was required to notify others of any risk he posed
to them, as instructed by the probation officer. On appeal, he ar-
gues that suppression was required because the officers lacked
probable cause to detain him under the Baker Act, and that the dis-
trict court plainly erred by imposing the risk-notification condition,
which, in his view, unconstitutionally delegated judicial authority
to the probation officer. After careful review, we affirm.
I.
On April 5, 2021, Hollingsworth made a 911 call. Claiming
an “emergency,” he told the dispatcher to relay a message to Mar-
ion County Sheriff Billy Woods for Woods’s role in a 2013 incident
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22-11250 Opinion of the Court 3
involving Hollingsworth. The gist of the message was that, when
“God can put [him] in a position to do it,” Hollingsworth was “go-
ing to unload a whole fucking clip in his fucking face, in his whole
fucking cranium in front of all his employees and his bosses.” Hol-
lingsworth continued to discuss the 2013 incident and then ended
the call. During the call, Hollingsworth sounded angry and was
cursing beyond what he said in the message set forth above.
Officer Robert Crossman was dispatched to a RaceTrac gas
station in Ocala, Florida, to address the threatening 911 call. When
Crossman arrived, Hollingsworth was outside livestreaming the
events on his cell phone and “ranting” about the 2013 incident.
Stating that he had unsettled business or “beef” from that incident,
in which he had been shot multiple times, he demanded the “sher-
iff’s department to come out in full force” and to “bring all your
boys,” including “helicopters and everybody,” with “them guns
drawn.” He said he had “already died before” and “didn’t care.”
Soon after Crossman arrived at the scene, Officer Shelby
Prather arrived with her field trainee, Officer Branden McCoy and
took over primary responsibility. The officers questioned Hol-
lingsworth further about the 911 call and the 2013 incident.
Hollingsworth explained to the officers that he had been
shot multiple times during an incident in March 2013. It appears
that he later pled guilty to and was convicted of attempted stron-
garm robbery based on that incident. But Hollingsworth believed
that the Marion County Sheriff’s Office had lied about the circum-
stances surrounding the shooting. He also discussed problems
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4 Opinion of the Court 22-11250
obtaining disability benefits for his injuries or other redress for the
2013 incident because of his conviction. It’s not clear whether
Woods, who became sheriff in 2017, played any personal role in
the prior incident.
Hollingsworth was generally calm, cooperative, and respon-
sive during the encounter, but his “behavior was pretty erratic and
obsessive about . . . the incident that occurred back in 2013,” ac-
cording to Prather. He continued to insist that Sheriff Woods and
the Sheriff’s Office respond to the scene and that he had business
or a score to settle. He denied threatening Sheriff Woods in the
911 call, and he was “adamant” that the officers listen to the record-
ing. Hollingsworth also denied wanting to harm anyone, stating
that he wanted only to meet Sheriff Woods.
Based on Hollingsworth’s behavior at the scene, neither
Crossman nor Prather believed Hollingsworth met the criteria for
the Baker Act (or any criminal offense). Crossman told Prather that
Hollingsworth had called 911 “to vent,” that he did not want to
hurt himself or anyone else and knew where he was, and that Race-
Trac “love[d] him.” Likewise, Prather told her supervisor, Ser-
geant Kyle Howie, who had arrived on the scene but did not inter-
act with Hollingsworth, that the circumstances were “not 329”—
329 being code for the Baker Act—and that she would close the
case with an incident report “just because it’s kind of weird.”
When they made these observations, though, the officers
had not yet listened to Hollingsworth’s 911 call, which Prather be-
lieved was relevant to the investigation. As a result, Hollingsworth
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22-11250 Opinion of the Court 5
was detained outside the RaceTrac for approximately 45 minutes
while Howie obtained a recording of the call. After listening to the
recording, Prather notified Hollingsworth that Hollingsworth
would be detained and transported for examination under the
Baker Act.
Hollingsworth was handcuffed and searched. While being
checked for and questioned about weapons, Hollingsworth told
the officers he was homeless and did not own any weapons, and he
asked the officers to collect his backpack by the RaceTrac. Cross-
man retrieved the backpack and searched it, finding a single 9mm
bullet, which Hollingsworth later described as his “lucky bullet.”
Because Hollingsworth was a convicted felon, he was taken to jail
for unlawful possession of ammunition, rather than to a mental-
health facility for evaluation.
II.
After his indictment on one count of unlawful possession of
ammunition by a convicted felon,
see 18 U.S.C. § 922(g), Hol-
lingsworth moved to suppress the evidence, arguing that the offic-
ers lacked probable cause to seize him under the Baker Act or to
search his backpack.
At an evidentiary hearing, the government presented the
testimony of the four police officers involved: Crossman, Howie,
McCoy, and Prather. In addition to the witness testimony, both
the government and Hollingsworth introduced body-worn camera
footage from Crossman, McCoy, and Prather; the audio and
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6 Opinion of the Court 22-11250
transcript of a 911 call placed by Hollingsworth on April 5, 2021;
and the rear-seat in-car camera video from Prather’s patrol vehicle.
After the hearing, the magistrate judge issued a report rec-
ommending the denial of the motion to suppress. In the magistrate
judge’s view, the officers had probable cause to detain Hol-
lingsworth under the Baker Act based on the totality of the circum-
stances. The magistrate judge noted that Hollingsworth, after
threatening in a 911 emergency call to shoot Sheriff Woods in the
head, “continued to obsess over the opportunity to meet with Sher-
iff Woods” and demanded that he and the Sheriff’s Office respond
to the scene with their guns drawn. Based on these comments, the
magistrate judge concluded that the officers had probable cause to
conclude that “there was a substantial likelihood that Hol-
lingsworth would inflict serious bodily harm to Sheriff Woods or
others in the near future.”
Hollingsworth filed objections, arguing that his behavior at
the RaceTrac established he was not a threat and instead simply
wanted to air his grievances. He also asserted that the 911 call was
not an “actual threat,” but was, “at worst, a conditional threat that
gives no indication [he] ‘will’ cause serious bodily harm in the near
future,” as required by the Baker Act. The district court overruled
the objections and adopted the magistrate judge’s report and rec-
ommendation.
Thereafter, the district court found Hollingsworth guilty at
a bench trial based on stipulated facts, and it sentenced him to 36
months of imprisonment, followed by three years of supervised
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22-11250 Opinion of the Court 7
release. Among other “Standard Conditions” of supervised release,
the court imposed the following risk-notification condition:
If the probation officer determines that you pose a
risk to another person (including an organization),
the probation officer may require you to notify the
person about the risk and you must comply with that
instruction. The probation officer may contact the
person and confirm that you have notified the person
about the risk.
Hollingsworth did not object to any condition of supervised re-
lease. This appeal followed.
III.
We start with the district court’s denial of the motion to sup-
press. We review the court’s factual findings for clear error and its
application of the law to the facts
de novo.
United States v. Pierre,
825 F.3d 1183, 1191 (11th Cir. 2016). In doing so, we view the evi-
dence in the light most favorable to the prevailing party in the district
court, affording substantial deference to the factfinder’s credibility
judgments.
United States v. Lewis, 674 F.3d 1298, 1303 (11th Cir.
2012).
Under the Fourth Amendment, an individual has a right to
be free from “unreasonable searches and seizures,”
Skop v. City of
Atlanta, Ga., 485 F.3d 1130, 1137 (11th Cir. 2007), including sei-
zures “to ascertain that person’s mental state (rather than to inves-
tigate suspected criminal activity),”
Roberts v. Spielman, 643 F.3d
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8 Opinion of the Court 22-11250
899, 905 (11th Cir. 2011). To be reasonable, a custodial seizure
must be supported by probable cause.
Skop, 485 F.3d at 1137;
see
Ingram v. Kubik, 30 F.4th 1241, 1250 (11th Cir. 2022) (“Mental-
health seizures are reasonable under the Fourth Amendment when
the officer has probable cause to believe that the seized person is a
danger to himself or to others.”).
The question here is whether there was probable cause to
take Hollingsworth into custody under Florida’s Baker Act, the
only justification offered for the seizure.
See Khoury v. Mi-
ami-Dade Cnty. Sch. Bd., 4 F.4th 1118, 1126 (11th Cir. 2021) (re-
viewing whether arguable probable cause existed to detain a plain-
tiff under Florida’s Baker Act in a civil rights action);
cf. Crosby v.
Monroe Cnty., 394 F.3d 1328, 1333 (11th Cir. 2004) (“Whether a
particular set of facts gives rise to probable cause . . . to justify an
arrest for a particular crime depends, of course, on the elements of
the crime.”). We look to the “totality of the circumstances to de-
termine whether . . . probable cause existed to detain [Hol-
lingsworth] under Florida’s Baker Act.”
Khoury, 4 F.4th at 1126.
Florida’s Baker Act permits police officers to take a “person
who appears to meet the criteria for involuntary examination into
custody” and deliver the person to a mental-health facility. Fla.
Stat. § 394.463(2)(a)2. The criteria provide, as relevant here, that
there must be “reason to believe” the following: (1) the “person has
a mental illness”; (2) he has refused a voluntary examination or is
unable to make that decision for himself; and (3) “[t]here is a sub-
stantial likelihood that without care or treatment the person will
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22-11250 Opinion of the Court 9
cause serious bodily harm to himself or herself or others in the near
future, as evidenced by recent behavior.” Fla. Stat. § 394.463(1).
Relevant recent behavior may include “causing, attempting,
or threatening to do [serious bodily] harm.”
D.F. v. State, 248 So.
3d 1232, 1234 (Fla. Dist. Ct. App. 2018). That an individual might
need treatment for a mental illness alone is insufficient to justify
involuntary commitment.
Id.;
Williams v. State, 522 So. 2d 983,
984 (Fla. Dist. Ct. App. 1988). So too are “[v]ague notions about
what a person might do—for example, a belief about some likeli-
hood that without treatment a person might cause some type of
harm at some point.”
Khoury, 4 F.th at 1126.
Here, the district court did not err in denying Hol-
lingsworth’s motion to suppress. The record shows that Hol-
lingsworth made a 911 call threatening “to unload a whole . . . clip
in [Sheriff Woods’s] . . . face, in his whole . . . cranium in front of
all his employees and his bosses.” Then, once the officers arrived,
Hollingsworth was fixated on the alleged injustice he suffered in
2013 and the alleged culpability of the Sheriff’s Office. And he re-
peatedly sought to provoke a confrontation with Sheriff Woods
and “all [his] boys” with “them guns drawn,” stating that he “didn’t
care” about the consequences because he had “already died be-
fore.”
Given this recent behavior, which included threatening to
do serious bodily harm to Sheriff Woods and then being “erratic
and obsessive” about meeting the sheriff to settle an old score,
probable cause existed to believe that Hollingsworth had a mental
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10 Opinion of the Court 22-11250
illness and that there was a “substantial likelihood that without care
or treatment [he] [would] cause serious bodily harm to . . . others
in the near future.”1 Fla. Stat. § 394.463(1);
D.F., 248 So. 3d at 1234;
see also Paez v. Mulvey, 915 F.3d 1276, 1286 (11th Cir. 2019) (ex-
plaining that “[p]robable cause is not a high bar” and does not re-
quire “convincing proof” (quotation marks omitted)). Because that
recent behavior properly grounded the officers’ Baker Act assess-
ment, we need not consider whether it was reasonable for the of-
ficers to rely on the criminal history Hollingsworth disclosed.
While Hollingsworth was generally calm, respectful, and
nonthreatening with the officers, and nothing indicates he was de-
lusional or incompetent, we disagree that his behavior “dispelled
any suspicion” about the risk he posed, as he asserts. Notably,
1 Hollingsworth also challenges whether there was reason to believe he either
had refused a voluntary examination or was unable to make that decision for
himself.
See Fla. Stat. § 394.463(1)(a). But he does not identify any authority
applying this requirement to invalidate a Baker Act seizure. Nor would its
absence result in a Fourth Amendment violation in this case. Because we have
concluded that Hollingsworth’s seizure was supported by probable cause to
believe he was dangerous to others, it follows that the seizure was reasonable
under the Fourth Amendment, notwithstanding that a defect under state law
may or may not exist.
Ingram v. Kubik, 30 F.4th 1241, 1250 (11th Cir. 2022)
(“Mental-health seizures are reasonable under the Fourth Amendment when
the officer has probable cause to believe that the seized person is a danger to
himself or to others.”);
see also Virginia v. Moore, 553 U.S. 164, 174–76, 178
(2008) (holding that an officer’s violation of state law arrest rules did not ren-
der an arrest unconstitutional because “it is not the province of the Fourth
Amendment to enforce state law”).
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22-11250 Opinion of the Court 11
although he denied making any threats to Sheriff Woods in the 911
call or having any violent intent, the recording reflected a graphic
threat to murder the sheriff in a public setting. And Hollingsworth
seemed obsessed with confronting the sheriff over the 2013 inci-
dent, which had affected his life profoundly. He also indicated he
had exhausted other means of redress, potentially a sign that his
behavior was escalating. So on hearing the recording, the officers
had reason to discount the credibility of Hollingsworth’s assur-
ances at the scene that he did not want to harm anyone.
See In-
gram, 30 F.4th at 1250–51 (holding that, in light of a recent suicide
attempt, an officer “was not required to believe [the suspect’s] in-
nocent assurances that he no longer desired to harm himself”).
Plus, officers are not “required to sift through conflicting evidence
or explanations or resolve issues of credibility” when assessing
probable cause.
Huebner v. Bradshaw, 935 F.3d 1183, 1188 (11th
Cir. 2019) (quotation marks omitted).
That the officers did not believe the Baker Act criteria were
satisfied before listening to the 911 call recording does not make
the resulting seizure unlawful. The recording was part of the to-
tality of the circumstances facing the officers, and it could reasona-
bly inform an officer’s judgment about Hollingsworth’s behavior
at the scene and whether the Baker Act criteria were satisfied.
See
Khoury, 4 F.4th at 1126;
Huebner, 935 F.3d at 1187.
Hollingsworth suggests it was unreasonable for the officers
to detain him “outside in the sun without water” for 45 minutes so
they could listen to a recording of the 911 call. But he made no
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12 Opinion of the Court 22-11250
distinct claim that he was subject to an unlawful investigatory de-
tention while the officers obtained the recording, nor would he pre-
vail on such a claim if he had.
See e.g.,
Illinois v. Wardlow, 528
U.S. 119, 123 (2000) (“[A]n officer may, consistent with the Fourth
Amendment, conduct a brief, investigatory stop when the officer
has a reasonable, articulable suspicion that criminal activity is
afoot.”). The recording was relevant to the investigation of the 911
call, which the officers believed contained threats against a local
public official. And there is no evidence that Hollingsworth,
though not free to leave, was detained longer or under more severe
conditions than necessary to obtain the 911 call recording.
See
United States v. Gil, 204 F.3d 1347, 1350–51 (11th Cir. 2000) (inves-
tigatory stops must be “reasonably related in scope to the circum-
stances which justified the interference in the first place” (quotation
marks omitted)).
For these reasons, we affirm the denial of Hollingsworth’s
motion to suppress.
IV.
Hollingsworth also challenges a condition of his supervised
release. Because this challenge was raised for the first time on ap-
peal, our review is for plain error.
United States v. Nash, 438 F.3d
1302, 1304 (11th Cir. 2006). To constitute plain error, the district
court must have made an error that was plain and that affects Hol-
lingsworth’s substantial rights.
Id. When plain error occurs, we
may reverse if it seriously affects the fairness, integrity, or public
reputation of judicial proceedings.
Id.
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22-11250 Opinion of the Court 13
“A court may not delegate a judicial function to a probation
officer” because “[s]uch a delegation would violate Article III of the
United States Constitution.”
United States v. Bernardine, 237 F.3d
1279, 1283 (11th Cir. 2001). “[I]mposing a sentence on a defendant
is a judicial function.”
United States v. Heath, 419 F.3d 1312, 1315
(11th Cir. 2005).
To determine whether the district court improperly dele-
gated its sentencing authority, we draw a distinction between the
delegation “of a ministerial act or support service” and “the ulti-
mate responsibility” of imposing the sentence.
Nash, 438 F.3d at
1304–05. The district court may not delegate the ultimate respon-
sibility of deciding whether to impose a condition of supervised re-
lease.
Id. at 1305. But the district court may delegate the ministe-
rial function of how, when, and where the defendant must comply
with the condition.
Id.
The Guidelines recommend a number of “standard” condi-
tions for all terms of supervised release. U.S.S.G. § 5D1.3(c). Num-
ber twelve on the list is a risk-notification condition, which states,
If the probation officer determines that you pose a
risk to another person (including an organization),
the probation officer may require you to notify the
person about the risk and you must comply with that
instruction. The probation officer may contact the
person and confirm that you have notified the person
about the risk.
U.S.S.G. § 5D1.3(c)(12).
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14 Opinion of the Court 22-11250
In
Nash, we held that an earlier version of this condition did
not improperly delegate judicial authority. 438 F.3d at 1306. The
defendant in that case was obligated to “notify third parties of risks
that may be occasioned by [his] criminal record or personal history
or characteristics” “[a]s directed by the probation officer.”
Id. We
explained that, under the language of the condition, “[t]he proba-
tion officer may ‘direct’ when, where, and to whom notice must be
given, but may not unilaterally decide whether Nash ‘shall’ do so
at all.”
Id. For that reason, we held that the condition did not im-
permissibly delegate the ultimate responsibility of determining
Nash’s sentence to the discretion of the probation officer.
Id.
After we decided
Nash, the Sentencing Commission revised
the risk-notification condition to clear up “potential ambiguity in
how the condition [was] phrased.” U.S. Sentencing Guidelines
App. C, Amend. 803 (2016) (citing
United States v. Thompson, 777
F.3d 383, 379 (7th Cir. 2015) (criticizing the former risk-notification
condition as vague)). It rephrased the condition to make it “easier
for defendants to understand and probation officers to enforce,”
id.,
though it did not address
Nash or the delegation issue.
We have not addressed the current version of the risk-noti-
fication condition (Standard Condition 12) in a published opinion.
Most circuits to address the issue have held that the current version
does not improperly delegate judicial authority.
United States v.
Cruz, 49 F.4th 646, 654 (1st Cir. 2022);
United States v. Mejia-Bane-
gas, 32 F.4th 450, 452 (5th Cir. 2022);
United States v. Janis, 995 F.3d
647, 653 (8th Cir. 2021);
United States v. Hull, 893 F.3d 1221, 1226
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22-11250 Opinion of the Court 15
(10th Cir. 2018);
see also United States v. Gibson, 998 F.3d 415, 423
(9th Cir. 2021) (stating that “Standard Condition 12 is constitutional
and may be imposed in appropriate cases” in part because “proba-
tion officers do not have unfettered discretion under this condi-
tion”). One circuit, though, has vacated the imposition of a risk-
notification condition as an “improper delegation of judicial
power.”
United States v. Cabral, 926 F.3d 687, 699 (10th Cir. 2019);
see also United States v. Boles, 914 F.3d 95, 112 (7th Cir. 2019) (va-
cating and remanding for the court “to clarify the scope” of the risk-
notification condition because, as written, it “gives the probation
office unfettered discretion”).
Under our precedent, “where neither the Supreme Court
nor this Court has ever resolved an issue, and other circuits are split
on it, there can be no plain error in regard to that issue.”
United
States v. Aguillard, 217 F.3d 1319, 1321 (11th Cir. 2000).
But cf.
Heath, 419 F.3d at 1319 (holding that plain error occurred where
other circuits were unanimously in favor of the defendant’s view).
Because other circuits are split on, if not mostly against, the view
that the risk-notification condition (Standard Condition 12) im-
properly delegates judicial authority to probation officers, and be-
cause we have upheld a prior version of that condition and have
not spoken on the current one, Hollingsworth cannot establish that
any error was plain or obvious under current law.
See Aguillard,
217 F.3d at 1321.
For these reasons, we affirm Hollingsworth’s conviction and
sentence.
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16 Opinion of the Court 22-11250
AFFIRMED.
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