Opposition to Notice of Motion and Motion — USA v. Western Distribution, LLC. et al. (Dkt. 83, C.D. Cal.)

Record facts

U.S. District Court for the Central District of California · No. 5:21-cr-00170-JGB · Doc. 83 · 2022-10-03 · Docket on CourtListener

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E. MARTIN ESTRADA 
United States Attorney 
SCOTT M. GARRINGER 
Assistant United States Attorney 
Chief, Criminal Division 
JOSEPH O. JOHNS (Cal. Bar. No. 144524) 
MATTHEW W. O’BRIEN (Cal. Bar No. 261568) 
Assistant United States Attorneys 
Environmental and Community Safety Crimes Section 
1300 United States Courthouse 
312 North Spring Street 
Los Angeles, California 90012 
Telephone: (213) 894-4536/8644 
Facsimile: (213) 894-0141 
E-mail: 
joseph.johns@usdoj.gov 
 
Matthew.O’Brien@usdoj.gov 
 
Attorneys for Plaintiff 
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA 
 
UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 
 
FOR THE CENTRAL DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA 
 
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, 
Plaintiff, 
v. 
NATIONAL DISTRIBUTION SERVICES, 
INC.,  
  aka “NDSI,”   
WHOLESALE DISTRIBUTION, INC., 
  dba “Quality Services,” 
CARL BRADLEY JOHANSSON, 
  aka “Brad Johnson,”  
  aka “Carl Johnson,” 
  aka “C. Brad Johanson,” 
  aka “Keith Golatta,” 
ENRIQUE GARCIA, 
  aka “Henry Garcia,” and 
DONALD CAMERON SPICER, 
 
Defendants. 
 
And the additional following 
case 
CR No. 5:18-00114(B)-VAP 
CR No. 5:21-00170-VAP 
GOVERNMENT’S OPPOSITION TO 
DEFENDANT CARL BRADLEY JOHANSSON’S 
THIRD REQUEST TO CONTINUE 
SENTENCING  
Case 5:21-cr-00170-JGB     Document 83     Filed 10/03/22     Page 1 of 5   Page ID #:599

 
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UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, 
Plaintiff, 
v. 
WESTERN DISTRIBUTION, LLC, 
  aka “Advanced Distribution      
Inc.,” and 
CARL BRADLEY JOHANSSON,  
  aka “Brad Johnson,”  
  aka “Carl Johnson,” 
  aka “C. Brad Johanson,” 
  aka “Jay Johnson,”  
  aka “Keith Golatta,” 
 
Defendants. 
 
Plaintiff United States of America, by and through its counsel 
of record, the United States Attorney for the Central District of 
California, and Assistant United States Attorneys Matthew O’Brien and 
Joseph Johns, hereby submits this opposition to defendant CARL 
BRADLEY JOHANSSON’s (“JOHANSSON”) Motion to Continue Sentencing, 
based on the following grounds. 
On August 12, 2021, the government filed JOHANSSON’s plea 
agreement.  (Dkt. No. 264.)1  After several unsuccessful change of 
plea hearings, JOHANSSON pled guilty on September 29, 2021.  The 
Court scheduled his sentencing for May 9, 2022.  (See Dkt. No. 282.)  
On April 4, 2022, the Probation Office disclosed its Presentence 
Report and letter for JOHANSSON, recommending an above-Guidelines 
sentence of 90 months in prison.  (Dkt. Nos. 305, 306.)   
On April 12, 2022, JOHANSSON filed a stipulation in which the 
parties agreed – at JOHANSSON’s request – to continue his sentencing 
 
1 All references to the docket herein refer to the docket in 
5:18-CR-114(B)-VAP; references to the “PPP Dkt.” refer to the docket 
in 5:21-00170-VAP.   
Case 5:21-cr-00170-JGB     Document 83     Filed 10/03/22     Page 2 of 5   Page ID #:600

 
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from May 9, 2022 to August 22, 2022 because JOHANSSON “wishe[d] to 
retain new counsel to prepare for his sentencing” and he therefore 
“need[ed] time either to resolve this conflict or for new counsel to 
prepare for the sentencing.”  (Dkt. No. 314, ¶¶ 3, 4.)  
Nonetheless, for the next three months, JOHANSSON did nothing.  
Finally, on July 28, 2022, JOHANSSON moved ex parte to retain new 
counsel and continue the sentencing once again.  (Dkt. Nos. 346, 
347.)  The government opposed JOHANSSON’s request because it was 
untimely:  JOHANSSON had had four months to address the issues raised 
in the application, and almost an entire year to prepare for his 
sentencing.  (Dkt. No. 344.)  On July 29, 2022, the government timely 
filed its sentencing papers for JOHANSSON, seeking a ten-year 
sentence of imprisonment.  (Dkt. No. 345.)  
On August 8, 2022, over the government’s objection, the Court 
granted JOHANSSON’s ex parte application for new counsel and 
continued JOHANSSON’s sentencing to October 24, 2022.  (Dkt. No. 
357.)  At the hearing on August 8, 2022, the Court made clear that 
there would be no further continuances of JOHANSSON’s sentencing 
absent extraordinary circumstances.  
JOHANSSON now requests yet another continuance.  (PPP Dkt. No. 
82.)  The Court should deny JOHANSSON’s request because each 
purported justification for the continuance was foreseeable months 
ago:  (1) the fact that newly retained counsel would need to review a 
large volume of discovery; (2) the fact that newly retained counsel 
would need to order and review transcripts; (3) the fact that 
JOHANSSON’s detention would complicate a psychological evaluation; 
and (4) the fact that JOHANSSON’s detention would complicate 
Case 5:21-cr-00170-JGB     Document 83     Filed 10/03/22     Page 3 of 5   Page ID #:601

 
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attorney-client communications.  (See Declaration of Edward M. 
Robinson, ¶¶ 5-9.)    
Due to the lack of any exceptional, unforeseeable circumstances 
justifying a third continuance of JOHANSSON’s sentencing, the 
government respectfully requests that the Court deny JOHANSSON’s 
motion.  This case needs to come to an end:  the victims and the 
public deserve justice and closure, and four other defendants are 
waiting to be sentenced pending JOHANSSON’s sentencing.   
Finally, the continuity of counsel that JOHANSSON’s corporate 
shells have enjoyed throughout this prosecution mitigates against the 
Court providing more time for another criminal defense attorney 
retained by JOHANSSON to get up to speed.  In addition to his 
previous counsel, JOHANSSON has had two other sets of retained 
counsel continuously representing his interests in United States v. 
National Distribution Services, Inc. et al. for more than four years.  
Under JOHANSSON’s direction, his co-defendants and corporate shells – 
National Distribution Services, Inc. (“National”) and Wholesale 
Distribution, Inc. (“Wholesale”) – each retained criminal-defense 
lawyers in this case.  JOHANSSON controls National and Wholesale and 
has been the corporate representative of each entity throughout this 
prosecution.  (See, e.g., PSR ¶ 100.)  The identical interests shared 
by JOHANSSON and his corporate shells in this prosecution are 
evidenced by the fact that, for example: 
• Wholesale’s lawyers initially represented JOHANSSON in his 
individual capacity in this case (see Dkt. No. 9) and for 
years represented JOHANSSON in his individual capacity in a 
related state-court criminal case arising out of the 2014 
explosion (see PSR ¶ 130); and 
Case 5:21-cr-00170-JGB     Document 83     Filed 10/03/22     Page 4 of 5   Page ID #:602

 
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• The factual bases to National’s and Wholesale’s plea 
agreements are nearly identical to the corresponding portions 
of the factual basis to JOHANSSON’s plea agreement, and each 
party has acted in unison throughout this prosecution.  
In sum, the four teams of highly experienced criminal-defense 
attorneys that JOHANSSON has retained to defend his interests in this 
prosecution undermine his latest request to have more time to prepare 
for sentencing.  (JOHANSSON’s financial capacity to retain all of 
these lawyers and their various investigators and experts also 
undermines his repeated claims to the Court that he is broke.)   
Dated: October 3, 2022 
Respectfully submitted, 
 
E. MARTIN ESTRADA  
United States Attorney  
 
SCOTT M. GARRINGER 
Assistant United States Attorney 
Chief, Criminal Division 
 
 
   /s/    
 
MATTHEW W. O’BRIEN  
JOSEPH O. JOHNS 
Assistant United States Attorneys 
 
Attorneys for Plaintiff 
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA 
 
Case 5:21-cr-00170-JGB     Document 83     Filed 10/03/22     Page 5 of 5   Page ID #:603

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