Opinion ID: 3010078
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: sufficiency of the evidence

Text: Stelmokas next argues that the government failed to establish its case by clear, unequivocal, and convincing evidence so as to leave no doubt as to its allegations regarding Stelmokas's wartime activities. In considering this allegation, we determine whether the district court's findings are clearly erroneous. Oberti v. Board of Ed., 995 F.2d 1204, 1220 (3d Cir. 1993). Of course, they will not be clearly erroneous if supported by clear, unequivocal, and convincing evidence. We have reviewed the record and have concluded that the district court's findings are not clearly erroneous, as the evidence in the record fully supports them. The ultimate factual issue for resolution in this case was whether Stelmokas resided in the United States for five years after being lawfully admitted for permanent residence. 8 U.S.C. § 1427. If he was not lawfully admitted, he was not eligible for citizenship. Resolution of this issue in turn depends on whether the district court's findings that Stelmokas should have been barred for six different reasons from entering the country were clearly erroneous as to all six. We thus emphasize that even if we upheld the findings on only one of the six bases, we would affirm. In fact, the government demonstrated beyond all doubt that Stelmokas was not lawfully admitted for permanent residence for all six reasons. The evidence against Stelmokas was overwhelming, even without the inferences the court drew from Stelmokas's Fifth Amendment plea and, as Stelmokas called no witnesses, the evidence was not rebutted. In the circumstances, we would serve no useful purpose in detailing all the evidence to support each of the charges against him. We highlight two examples of how Stelmokas argues his case. He contends that there is no proof that he joined the Schutzmannschaft voluntarily. While it is true that no person testified that he recalled seeing Stelmokas sign up for the Schutzmannschaft, his contention that there is no proof that he joined voluntarily ignores the record. The evidence shows that when Stelmokas joined the Schutzmannschaft, service of all its officers was voluntary as there was an ample supply of candidates and conscription was not necessary. Indeed, for at least several months after Stelmokas joined the Schutzmannschaft, its members could be released at their own request. Obviously, if the evidence demonstrated that service of all Schutzmannschaftofficers was voluntary, then a finding that a particular officer served voluntarily is supported in the record. We also point out that in addition to this positive proof that Stelmokas joined the Schutzmannschaft voluntarily, the court drew the entirely justified inference from Stelmokas's claim of the privilege against self-incrimination that he joined voluntarily. Another example of the weakness of Stelmokas's factual arguments is his claim that he did not misrepresent his wartime employment by concealing his membership in the Schutzmannschaft. This contention is frivolous, for he acknowledges that he represented to the DPC analyst and the vice-consul that from 1940 until 1943 he was a teacher in Seda. It is difficult to understand how Stelmokas can argue that he did not misrepresent his status as a Schutzmannschaft officer when he represented that he was a teacher for most of the time that he was in reality such an officer. Stelmokas, however, takes a different approach to what constitutes a misrepresentation. In a post-argument brief that he filed at our direction, he recites that [a] relevant concealment would have occurred if the government had produced evidence that Stelmokas was asked if he had been a member of the Schutzmannschaft and said no. Br. at 3. Thus, Stelmokas would require that the examiner have a reason to ask about a specific narrowly defined matter. We reject his approach. In our view, if you falsely represent that your employment is one thing when your actual employment is completely different, then you have concealed your true employment. In these circumstances, it is perfectly clear that Stelmokas himself demonstrates that he made a material misrepresentation when he sought displaced person status and a visa. Surely the misrepresentation that Stelmokas was a teacher was material because it hid his true employment as a Schutzmannschaft officer. Notwithstanding Stelmokas's failure to mount a substantial attack on the court's findings, we focus on two aspects of the government's case: Stelmokas's participation in the Schutzmannshaft as a movement hostile to the United States and his false statements to the DPC analyst and to the viceconsul. As we indicated, section 13 of the DPA prohibited issuance of a visa to any person who is or has been a member of, or participated in, any movement which is or has been hostile to the United States or the form of government of the United States. 62 Stat. 1014. It is beyond doubt that Stelmokas was an officer in the Schutzmannschaft. It is also clear that the Lithuanian Schutzmannschaft was on the State Department List of Organizations Considered Inimical to the United States. The inimical list states that members of the Schutzmannschaft are considered collaborators except for those members . . . who can produce evidence that they were conscripted and did not commit atrocities or otherwise persecute civilian populations. Seeexhibit 4.242, app. 1672. Stelmokas did not produce any such evidence. Indeed, except for a small number of exhibits, he did not produce any evidence at all. It is clear that Stelmokas voluntarily joined the Schutzmannschaft and, while there is no eye-witness testimony identifying him as a person who committed atrocities or otherwise persecuted the civilian population, the only reasonable inference to be drawn from the record is that he did exactly that. In any event, with or without the reasonable inferences to be drawn from the record, Stelmokas's service as an officer in the Schutzmannschaft disqualified him from obtaining displaced person status and a visa, as the Schutzmannschaft was a movement hostile to the United States. See United States v. Kowalchuk, 773 F.2d at 497 n.11; United States v. Koziy, 540 F. Supp. at 34; United States v. Osidach, 513 F. Supp. at 78-79. In his post-argument brief, Stelmokas makes disturbing contentions with respect to the inimical list. He indicates that there is no evidence of record as to what, if any [inimical] list, was in use in July and August of 1949 when [he] made his applications to the [DPC] and the consulate. He then adds that the government has placed the so-called inimical list in evidence but it is undated and there is no testimony as to when it was published and whether the Lithuanian Schutzmannschaft was on the list as early as the summer of 1949, and if so, what effect it might have had, if any, on the decision of the DPC examiner or vice consul. Br. at 22. While we agree that there was no testimony at trial as to what effect the presence of the Schutzmannschaft on the inimical list might have had on the decisions of the examiner or the vice-consul, we regard the balance of the quoted statements in Stelmokas's brief as material misrepresentations. Near the end of the trial, after the government's witnesses had testified and shortly before the government rested, the following proceedings took place: THE COURT: Fine. What remains to be done today? MS. SLAVIN [the government attorney]: Well, we would like to move Exhibit 4.242, which is the inimical list, into evidence. We have reached a stipulation. THE COURT: Let me... (Pause in proceedings.) THE COURT: Okay. It was not received yesterday. Is it being received -- MS. SLAVIN: We are moving it in -- THE COURT: -- in evidence by agreement or is there a stipulation that you want to read into the record? MS. SLAVIN: The stipulation we have arrived at that was -- that the list was in effect during the relevant period of Mr. Stelmokas' immigration in 1949. MR. CARROLL [Stelmokas's attorney]: And I'm withdrawing my objection to that exhibit, your Honor, for that reason. THE COURT: Exhibit 4.242 will be received in evidence. (Government Exhibit 4.242 is admitted into evidence.) In the circumstances, it obviously is disingenuous for Stelmokas's attorney on this appeal, who was trial counsel as well, to challenge the use of the inimical list on the theory that the evidence did not show it was in effect when Stelmokas sought displaced person status and a visa. Of course, Exhibit 4.242 included the Lithuanian Schutzmannschaft on the list. In any event, it would not matter if the Schutzmannschaft was added to the inimical list after Stelmokas obtained displaced person status and a visa and entered the country. Stelmokas was barred from entering the country because he was a member of the Schutzmannschaft, which was a movement hostile to the United States. The date that the Schutzmannschaftwas placed on the inimical list is not significant for purposes of determining if it was a movement hostile to the United States because its placement on the list established that it was such a movement during World War II when Stelmokas was one of its officers. The inimical list did not operate prospectively so that a movement would be regarded as hostile to the United States only after it was placed on the list. After all, the list enumerated movements that existed during the Nazi era which ended before the list's promulgation. Therefore, Stelmokas was unlawfully admitted to the United States because, regardless of when the Schutzmannschaft first appeared on the inimical list, when Stelmokas served as a Schutzmannschaft officer it was a movement hostile to the United States. The second aspect of the evidence on which we comment is Stelmokas' misrepresentations to the DPC analyst and the American vice-consul in Hamburg. Neither the analyst nor the vice-consul testified, but it is beyond dispute that when they interviewed Stelmokas he told them nothing about his Schutzmannschaft and Luftwaffe service. Rather, he told them that during the war he was a teacher in Seda, Lithuania, and was then a laborer in Dresden, Germany. There simply can be no doubt but that the district court's findings demonstrate that Stelmokas was not eligible to immigrate to the United States. D. The materiality of Stelmokas's misrepresentation Stelmokas's final argument is that the government did not establish that his misrepresentations regarding his wartime employment and residence were material. He contends that the government has usually attempted [to establish] proof of materiality in these cases by calling consular or INS officials to testify that their decisions would have been different if they had known the truth. Br. at 48. See, e.g., United States v. Kowalchuk, 773 F.2d at 496. He then correctly points out that the government did not present any such evidence in this case. Stelmokas's claim for relief on this basis faces the insurmountable barrier that even if he is correct, we still must affirm. The district court found for six different reasons, all fully supported by evidence in the record, that Stelmokas was ineligible for displaced person status and for a visa and thus that he had not entered the United States lawfully and had not been eligible for citizenship. Five of these reasons were predicated on his conduct and associations during World War II, and only one was based on his misrepresentations to the DPC analyst and the vice-consul. Thus, even if Stelmokas had made no misrepresentations to the DPC analyst or the vice-consul, we would affirm because he procured his citizenship illegally as he was not eligible for displaced person status and for a visa. We recognize that a party might contend that if a court of appeals rejected any of the bases for a district court's conclusion that a defendant should be denaturalized, it should remand the case so that the district court then could consider whether to grant relief predicated on the findings the court of appeals has upheld. In that event, a finding that a defendant had not made material misrepresentations in connection with his visa application could be significant. The problem with such an argument is that the courts do not have equitable discretion to deny the government a judgment of denaturalization to which it otherwise would be entitled. Fedorenko, 449 U.S. at 517-18, 101 S.Ct. at 752-53. Thus, even if we held that Stelmokas's misrepresentations were not material and, indeed, even if he made no representations at all to obtain the visa, his appeal is doomed, as he was not eligible for a visa, and we must uphold the district court even if we sustain only one of the bases for its conclusion that he had been ineligible to enter the United States. Of course, we are sustaining the district court's conclusions on all six counts that Stelmokas was ineligible to enter the United States. Nevertheless, we will address the materiality argument on its merits, as it does relate to one of the bases for relief. Initially, on this appeal Stelmokas and the government agreed that Kungys v. United States, 485 U.S. 759, 108 S.Ct. 1537 (1988), set the standard for materiality in this case, even though that case concerned materiality in citizenship applications under the INA, 8 U.S.C. § 1451(a), rather than materiality under section 10 of the DPA. Thus, in his opening brief, Stelmokas said that the current test of materiality is found in Kungys. Br. at 47. Indeed, in his Statement of Issues he included the following: Were the defendant's misrepresentations concerning his former occupation and residence 'material' as defined in Kungys v. United States, 485 U.S. 759 (1988). Under Kungys, a misrepresentation is material if it has a natural tendency to affect the officers' decisions, in this case the decisions of the DPC analyst and the vice-consul. 485 U.S. at 770-72, 108 S.Ct. at 1546-47. Furthermore, it is clear from Kungys that a misrepresentation can be material even where if the truth had been told, the decision maker ultimately would have reached the same result. Under Kungys, the materiality of a misrepresentation in a denaturalization proceeding is a legal rather than a factual question. Id. at 772, 108 S.Ct. at 1547. While the government continues to rely on Kungys, Stelmokas changed his position in his post-argument brief in which he now contends that Kungys simply did not deal with the visa or DPA issues. Br. at 1. Furthermore, he cites United States v. Gaudin, 115 S.Ct. 2310 (1995), for the first time on this appeal in that brief, pointing out that the Supreme Court held there that materiality was a factual rather than a legal matter in the circumstances of that case. We would be justified in refusing to entertain Stelmokas's post-argument change in position, for we do not think that a party should be able to change his legal contentions after oral argument. But, mindful of the importance of this case to Stelmokas, we nonetheless will discuss his new position. While we cannot predict the ultimate implications of Gaudin, we do know that Gaudin did not affect the Kungys holding that, in a denaturalization proceeding, materiality of a misrepresentation is a legal issue. Quite the contrary is true because the Gaudin court discussed Kungys at length and made it clear that it was distinguishing Kungys because that case dealt with whether an appellate court must remand to a district court for a determination of materiality in a denaturalization proceeding, whereas Gaudin was concerned with a defendant's Sixth Amendment right to have a jury determine materiality in a criminal proceeding. Gaudin, 115 S.Ct. at 2319. Of course, Gaudin followed a familiar track because it is not unusual for the Court to extend more extensive procedural protections to a defendant in a criminal case than to a party in a civil case. Indeed, as we point out above, the Court in Baxter v. Palmigiano distinguished Griffin v. California on the ground that Griffin, unlike Baxter, was a criminal case. Baxter, 425 U.S. at 317, 96 S.Ct. at 1557. Thus, while Gaudin may cause courts to cabin Kungys to the extent that it holds that a determination of materiality is a legal issue, Kungys's treatment of materiality as a legal issue remains applicable here. Stelmokas now also seems to contend that because the procedure in an application for citizenship differs from that under section 10 of the DPA, the definition of what is material in Kungys is inapplicable here. In particular, in his postargument brief, he contends that Kungys simply did not deal with the visa or DPA eligibility issues. Br. at 1. This argument is distinct from Stelmokas's contention that materiality is a factual question. We reject this attempt to distinguish Kungys. While the procedures followed and questions asked when an applicant seeks a visa differ from those applicable when an applicant seeks citizenship, we see no reason why the test of materiality under Kungys would not apply in DPA eligibility cases. Materiality, after all, refers to the effect of a representation on a decision maker regardless of the nature of the decision. In other words, no matter what is being decided, the misrepresentation is material under Kungys if it has the natural tendency to affect the decision. We see no reason not to apply that test here. Thus, Kungys is doubly significant here, for it establishes that the resolution of materiality is a legal undertaking and it sets forth the test of what is material. Inasmuch as under Kungys the materiality of a misrepresentation in a denaturalization proceeding is a matter of law, not fact, there cannot possibly be a need for the government to produce evidence from officials that if the truth had been told the officers would have reached a different result. Kungys, 485 U.S. at 772, 108 S.Ct. at 1547. After all, evidence is not needed for a court to make a legal determination. Thus, while the government frequently has produced evidence of that character, the effect of Kungys in 1988 has been to eliminate the need for such evidence, if it ever was required. We do not go so far as to suggest that evidence of what a consular or DPC official would have done if given the correct information is not admissible because we have no need to reach that point. Indeed, we even will assume that in a close case evidence of that character would be useful for the court in making a legal determination concerning the materiality of a misrepresentation. After all, the Supreme Court, prior to Kungysin Fedorenko v. United States, quoted and relied on such evidence produced by the government, though it noted that it was proffered and accepted by the court [w]ithout objection from the defendant. 449 U.S. at 448-50, 101 S.Ct. at 743-44. Yet, in Fedorenko the court did say that the defendant was ineligible for a visa as a matter of law. Fedorenko, 449 U.S. at 509, 101 S.Ct. at 749. Though we thus acknowledge that in a close case evidence of whether or not the consular official's decision would have been different if he knew the truth might be helpful to the court in deciding a materiality issue, this case is not close. In our view, it cannot reasonably be argued that Stelmokas's misrepresentation that he was a laborer and a school teacher when in fact he was an officer in the Schutzmannschaft and served in the Luftwaffe could not have had a natural tendency to influence the DPC analyst and the vice-consul. Indeed, probably without recognizing the implications of his statement, Stelmokas admits as much, for in his post-argument brief he describes his fabricated wartime employment as a neutral factor in the decision to admit him to the United States. Br. at 3. He hardly could contend that a revelation of his real Schutzmannschaft and Luftwaffe service would have amounted to the disclosure of a neutral factor. We have no doubt that if Stelmokas had told the truth about his service on behalf of Germany during World War II he never would have obtained his visa for permanent residency in the United States, and he never would have been naturalized. After all, we have found that these activities disqualified him from securing displaced person status and from obtaining a visa. Thus, the misrepresentations surely were material. Of course, there is a certain irony in Stelmokas's contention that his misrepresentations were not material, because when he made them he must have recognized the need to hide the truth so that he could be admitted to this country. At least we can discern no other motive that he might have had to conceal his wartime activities. The truth is inescapable: he invented his wartime history out of thin air so that he could be admitted to the United States and ultimately obtain citizenship. We make an additional observation with respect to the custom of the government of calling consular or INS officials to testify that their decisions would have been different if they had known the truth. As we have indicated, Stelmokas seems to believe that the materiality of a misrepresentation is a factual issue and reasons that the fact of materiality cannot be established without testimony as to what the consequence of the provision of truthful information to the decision maker would have been. Yet, even treating materiality as a factual question, we see no reason why the district court as the trier of the fact could not conclude, without such testimony, that the misrepresentation had a natural tendency to affect the decision and thus was material. We will not convert the government's custom in producing consular or INS testimony to establish the materiality of a misrepresentation into a requirement that it must do so, for we are not aware of any case which holds that the government must establish the materiality of a misrepresentation with testimony from a consular or INS officer that a truthful disclosure would have produced a different result. We point out that our conclusion that evidence on materiality of a misrepresentation is not necessary is in harmony with our treatment of materiality in other contexts. Bethel v. McAllister Bros., Inc., 81 F.3d 376 (3d Cir. 1996), is a recent example. In Bethel, the plaintiff obtained a substantial verdict on a defamation claim. Subsequently, the defendant moved for relief from the judgment entered on the verdict based on the plaintiff's testimony at an arbitration proceeding after the trial in the defamation case which was inconsistent with his earlier testimony at trial. The district court granted relief and ordered a new trial on the defamation action. The plaintiff appealed, and we affirmed. Bethel is significant to this case because the district court and this court in Bethel were concerned with whether the misrepresentation was material to the plaintiff's case. Id. at 385. We held that it was not merely material, it was crucial. In entertaining the motion for relief from judgment, the district court developed a record establishing the misrepresentation by comparing the testimony at the trial and the arbitration. But no witness testified that the misrepresentation was material. Rather, the district court, predicated on its own view of the record, concluded that it was material, and we reached the same conclusion using an identical methodology. Thus, without citing Kungys, both courts in Bethel followed the Kungys formula of basing a determination of the materiality of a statement . . . upon a factual evidentiary showing and then making an interpretation of substantive law. Kungys, 485 U.S. at 772, 108 S.Ct. at 1547 (omitting citation). That procedure is exactly what the district court did here, and it is exactly what we do on this appeal. In fact, materiality frequently is treated as a legal question, sometimes in a trial context as in Kungys, see In re Cohn, 54 F.3d 1108, 1115 (3d Cir. 1995), and sometimes in other proceedings. See, e.g., United States v. Pelullo, 14 F.3d 881, 886 (3d Cir. 1994); United States v. Gray, 878 F.2d 702, 714 (3d Cir. 1989). E. Comments on the dissent We close the discussion portion of our opinion with