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Less than two weeks after sentencing McAllen attorney Eric Jarvis to nearly four years in federal prison for his role in aiding a drug trafficking organization, a federal judge has handed down a revised lower sentence.
On April 19, U.S. District Judge Ricardo H. Hinojosa sentenced the disgraced attorney to 45 months in federal prison to be followed by 15 months of home confinement and three years of supervised release.
The sentence represented the maximum time Jarvis could be sentenced to after he pleaded guilty to using his position as an attorney to improperly access and pass along federal court records to an organization prosecutors referred to as the Herrera Drug Trafficking Organization.
But on Tuesday afternoon, Hinojosa called Jarvis, his defense attorney and prosecutors together to announce he had made a mistake.
“In failing to adequately allow for the loss of his license to practice law — and therefore his means for earning a living for himself and his family as a result — I do feel that I did make ‘an arithmetical, technical or other clear error,’” Hinojosa said, citing Rule 35 of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure.
Instead of 45 months in prison and 15 months of home confinement, Hinojosa essentially cut Jarvis’ overall sentence in half.
“To correct that error, the court’s gonna go ahead and sentence him to 30 months’ imprisonment,” the judge said.
Jarvis will still have to spend three years under supervised release — similar to probation — once he is released from prison; however, rather than serve an additional 15 months at home, Hinojosa instead ordered he perform 300 hours of community service.
“I gave that some thought and I thought, leaving him at home or making him actually do something that’s productive and helpful to society for the damage that he has caused to society, that’s where the 300 hours comes to correct that problem,” Hinojosa said.
The three district judges who preside over cases at the McAllen federal courthouse have often expressed their displeasure and disappointment when defendants who have violated the public trust come before them.
Hinojosa is no different.
During the initial sentencing hearing last month, Hinojosa said Jarvis had violated the oath he took as an attorney when he chose to pass information along to people he knew were using it to further their drug trafficking and money laundering schemes.
“Our belief in the rule of law, that is what our country is all about. … You have put that belief in the general public to a real test,” Hinojosa said to Jarvis last month.
Repeatedly, the judge told the now-former attorney that he was sorry Jarvis had put himself in a “very difficult situation.”
And on Tuesday, the judge was no less perplexed over how Jarvis had come to involve himself with drug traffickers.
“I do not understand why Mr. Jarvis is in front of me having done what he did. I think it’s been a shock to all of us that he was involved in something like this,” Hinojosa said.
“I suggest … that he spend some time correcting the horrible behavior that he engaged in that really gives the profession a bad reputation … especially for those of us who live on the border with regards to the type of crime that was involved in the drug trafficking aspect of this,” the judge further said.
But the judge — who has spent nearly 40 years adjudicating cases since he was first elevated to the bench by former President Ronald Reagan — has also previously spoken about the weight that comes with handing down a prison sentence.
With a note of introspection, Hinojosa said he had been reconsidering Jarvis’ case and the sentence he originally handed down last month.
“I have now spent quite a bit of time thinking about this and find this the appropriate way to handle this correction,” Hinojosa said with a wry pause.
The judge ended the resentencing hearing by imploring Jarvis to make amends.
“Mr. Jarvis, I’m sorry you’ve done this to yourself, and your family and to the profession. You’re young enough that maybe you can correct it by doing the right things as time goes on here,” Hinojosa.
“That is my intention, sir,” a subdued Jarvis responded.
“I assure you, I will,” he added a moment later.
