United States v. Ernestine Hogue

── United States v. Ernestine Hogue ── Court: Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit Date: May 28, 2026 Category: General NOT RECOMMENDED FOR PUBLICATION File Name: 26a0237n.06 No. 25-1463 UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FILED FOR THE SIXTH CIRCUIT May 28, 2026 KELLY L. STEPHENS, Clerk ) UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, ) Plaintiff-Appellee, ) ON APPEAL FROM THE ) v. UNITED STATES DISTRICT ) COURT FOR THE EASTERN ) ERNESTINE HOGUE, DISTRICT OF MICHIGAN ) Defendant-Appellant. ) OPINION ) ) Before: COLE, GRIFFIN, and READLER, Circuit Judges. GRIFFIN, Circuit Judge. Ernestine Hogue had two social security numbers. One number she obtained fraudulently, and under that number she collected benefits from the Social Security Administration. After the government discovered her scheme, she was charged with theft of government funds, with the charged period stretching from June 2003 to November 2015. The jury then found her guilty, and the district court sentenced her to time served and ordered restitution. When doing so, however, the district court considered an impermissible scope of restitution. Thus, we vacate the restitution order and remand for the district court to recalculate restitution. I. Hogue had one social security number (SSN) under her legal name. She fraudulently obtained another SSN under a fictitious identity. Between 1996 and 2015, she used the fraudulent SSN to collect disability benefits and Supplemental Security Income (SSI). No. 25-1463, United States v. Hogue When the fraud came to light, the Social Security Administration (SSA) calculated the amount of benefits it had paid Hogue from 1996 through 2015, which totaled $141,920.20. The SSA also determined that Hogue had been entitled to $50,471.10 in SSI benefits under her true SSN over this period, but it did not identify how much she was entitled to by month or year. When reconciling these two amounts, the SSA determined that it had overpaid Hogue $91,449.10 as a result of her fraud. Based on this information, prosecutors charged Hogue in a one-count criminal information with theft of government funds, with the charged period covering June 2003 through November 2015—which was not the same period the SSA had investigated, 1996 to 2015. A jury found her guilty of improperly receiving benefits as charged in the information, i.e., from June 2003 through November 2015. At sentencing, when calculating Hogue’s total offense level, the district court considered the net loss suffered by the SSA as a result of Hogue’s crime under U.S.S.G. § 2B1.1(b)(1). To determine this amount, the district court adopted the SSA’s calculation of $91,449.10 over the period it had investigated, 1996 through 2015. This led to a Guidelines range of 27 to 33 months of imprisonment. The district court sentenced Hogue to time served. Then,