Opinion ID: 3049934
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: Five Trials

Text: The 127-count Indictment was severed into five separate cases for trial: McNair (05-061), Swann (05-544), Barber (05-542), Wilson (05-545), and USI (05-543).5 The McNair trial involved bribes by the Pugh, Rast, and Dougherty 5 Grady Pugh, Chandler, Ellis, Dawson, and Creel testified for the government in the McNair trial. Chandler, Ellis, and Wilson testified for the government in the Swann trial. Grady Pugh, Chandler, and Yessick testified for the government in the Barber trial. Grady Pugh and Chandler testified for the government in the Wilson trial. Chandler, Ellis, and Dawson testified 8 defendants primarily to McNair but also to Chandler and Ellis. The USI trial involved bribes to McNair by the USI defendants. The other trials involved bribes to Swann, Barber, and Wilson, respectively. In the USI trial, defendants USI, Key, and Singh were convicted of, among other things, conspiracy to commit bribery and substantive bribery offenses for making payments to defendant Commissioner McNair and the JCESD’s Chandler and Ellis. This Court affirmed defendants USI, Key, and Singh’s convictions and sentences in United States v. US Infrastructure, 576 F.3d 1195 (11th Cir. 2009), cert. denied, __ S. Ct. __, 78 U.S.L.W. 3540 (U.S. Mar. 22, 2010) (No. 09-967). Defendant McNair entered a conditional guilty plea to Count 32 (conspiracy to accept a $140,000 bribe from the USI defendants).6 McNair reserved the right to appeal the district court’s denial of his motion to dismiss Count 32. McNair’s appeal in the USI case has been consolidated with the present appeal.