Opinion ID: 222568
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Evidence of a Relationship Between Langford and Gambling-Establishment Owner Milton McGregor

Text: Next, Langford claims that the district court erred by admitting evidence purportedly relating to a gambling-establishment owner, Milton McGregor. The defendant says that the government worked hard at efforts to emphasize Milton McGregor's position as a gambling magnate and his relationship to Mr. Langford. Blue Br. at 24. This characterization of the evidence is not supported by the record. McGregor's name came up in the context of two loans involving Langford. First, in the summer of 2002, Blount arranged for Langford to get a $50,000 loan at Colonial Bank through Caryn Cope, a Colonial Bank employee Blount was dating at the time. Langford got the loan, but, when it came due, he was unable to pay it off. So, to help Langford, Al LaPierre got a loan for the purpose of paying off Langford's loan. On his application for credit LaPierre listed Milton McGregor as a reference. In that context, a bank employee was asked at trial if she knew who Milton McGregor is? She responded: He is the owner of one of the race horse places, I'm sorry, I can't think of the name of it. Langford's counsel did not object to this question or answer. McGregor's name came up once more in the context of another loan Blount attempted to secure for Langford. In June 2003, Blount again called Caryn Cope about a $75,000 loan request for Mr. Langford. Cope told Blount that her boss, Robert Lowder, would have to approve that request. According to Cope, Bill Blount suggested that Milton McGregor, who knew all the parties involved, and my boss, Bobby Lowder, that he could talk to him about it and make him comfortable with the [$]75,000 loan request. Cope described McGregor as a board member of Colonial Bank, not as Langford claims, a gambling magnate. The gist of the discussions, Cope said, concerned an attempt to get McGregor to say hey, I will personally stand good on this loan, that it will personally be paid by Mr. Langford. Ultimately, however, the loan request was not approved. On this record, we cannot say that the district court abused its discretion, much less committed plain error, in permitting this testimony relating to Milton McGregor. [11] The two discussions highlighted abovewhich mentioned McGregor's name on five pages of a 1900-plus-paged transcript for an eight-day trialwere the extent of the evidence relating to Milton McGregor. There is no support for the claim that the government made efforts to emphasize Milton McGregor's position as a gambling magnate and his relationship to Mr. Langford. A single witness describing McGregor as the owner of one of the race horse places does not match that description. Moreover, we cannot deny that because of Blount's efforts to utilize McGregor's position as a member of the board of Colonial Bank to secure a loan for the defendant, the testimony mentioning McGregor was plainly relevant.