Opinion ID: 767958
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The Trial and Post-Trial Proceedings

Text: 2 The prosecution's theory at trial was that the defendants had victimized American Honda by taking kickbacks from dealers in exchange for dealership rights and favorable vehicle allocations, among other things. At the time, Honda cars were difficult to come by: the need for energy efficient cars had enhanced their popularity and Japanese export restrictions had diminished their availability. Demand exceeded supply and profit margins for dealers were high. These economic conditions created a climate ripe for the fraud scheme. The prosecution argued that Billmyer and a cohort, Stanley James Cardiges, masterminded a continuous, self-perpetuating kickback scheme by regularly accepting cash and lavish gifts from dealers around the country in exchange forfavorable allocation treatment. The prosecution claimed that Cardiges also participated in Josleyn's kickback schemes involving the dealer advertising programs and national sales training seminars. Cardiges and several other employees were indicted and entered into plea agreements. Cardiges cooperated and became one of the government's star witnesses. 3 At trial, one of the defenses offered by the defendants was that of condonation: that American Honda (and perhaps even its Japanese parent company) had sanctioned and condoned its executives' receiving money and lavish gifts from dealers. That another has also done wrong does not usually excuse wrongdoing by a defendant, so at trial there was a question as to the relevance of this condonation theory. In the end, the condonation theory resulted in an instruction to the jury that the evidence of condonation could be considered to the extent such evidence bears on the issue of whether or not [the defendants] formed the required intent to commit the crimes with which [they are] charged. After seven days of deliberation, the jury rejected the lack-of-intent defense and convicted. 4 These appeals are from the 1997 denial of the defendants' post-trial motions for a new trial, from the 1999 denial of a renewed motion for a new trial, and from the denial of a motion to reconsider the denial of the renewed motion for a new trial. Those motions were based on evidence that at first trickled and then flooded out of civil litigation that had been instituted by various dealers against American Honda. In that multi-district litigation (the MDL litigation), a federal district court in Maryland ordered the disclosure of certain information that American Honda had attempted to shield from disclosure through the attorney-client privilege. See In re Am. Honda Motor Co. Dealer Relations Litig., MDL Case No. 1069, slip op. at 1 (D. Md. June 3, 1998). The materials disclosed as a result of this ruling and others were used by Josleyn and Billmyer to support their renewed motion for a new trial in this case and tended to show much more knowledge of corruption by top-level American Honda officials than had previously been shown. 5 The 1997 motions for new trial were denied by the district court on July 17, 1997. After some skirmishing, 1 the defendants filed what was styled as a renewal of their original motions for new trial. The motion included the newly disclosed materials from the MDL litigation, which strengthened their argument. The district court denied the renewed motion for a new trial on the papers, thus denying as well the defendants' request for an evidentiary hearing on the motion. The court carefully reviewed the newly discovered evidence, both individually and in combination, and concluded that the evidence fell short of showing that a reasonable probability of a different result exists or that the new evidence undermines confidence in the verdict. 2