Opinion ID: 202083
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Constructive amendment and material variance claims

Text: 25 DeCicco's first claim is that there was a constructive amendment of his indictment, or alternatively, that there was a material variance between the indictment and proof that affected his substantial rights. In United States v. Fisher, 3 F.3d 456 (1st Cir.1993), we described the difference between a constructive amendment and a material variance: 26 A constructive amendment occurs when the charging terms of the indictment are altered, either literally or in effect, by prosecution or court after the grand jury has last passed upon them. A variance occurs when the charging terms remain unchanged but when the facts proved at trial are different from those alleged in the indictment. A constructive amendment is considered prejudicial per se and grounds for reversal of a conviction. Variance is grounds for reversal only if it affected the defendant's substantial rights — i.e., the rights to have sufficient knowledge of the charge against him in order to prepare an effective defense and avoid surprise at trial, and to prevent a second prosecution for the same offense. 27 Id. at 462-63 (internal quotation marks and citations omitted); see also United States v. Arcadipane, 41 F.3d 1, 6 (1st Cir.1994) (variance requires reversal of a conviction if it is both material and prejudicial).
28 In assessing DeCicco's constructive amendment and material variance claims, we must first determine the appropriate standard of review. The appellant claims that because these issues were preserved through his objections at trial, de novo review is appropriate. The government argues in opposition that the appellant made no such objections; as a result, we should review for plain error. See United States v. Olano, 507 U.S. 725, 731, 113 S.Ct. 1770, 123 L.Ed.2d 508 (1993). 2 29 In the district court, DeCicco twice moved for judgments of acquittal, arguing that there was insufficient evidence that he was responsible for the fires to permit the use-of-fire counts to go to the jury and that the other counts are conditioned upon a finding of guilt on Counts 5 and 6 [the use-of-fire counts] in terms of using the fire to actually commit the . . . mail fraud counts. . . . At two different points — both after the conclusion of the government's case and after the conclusion of the appellant's case — the district court made apparent its disagreement with such a proposition, based on its assessment that DeCicco could be guilty of mail fraud, even if he were not responsible for the fires, if he simply took advantage of the fires by submitting an inflated bill for the demolition costs. Nevertheless, DeCicco argues here that these motions sufficed to preserve his objection that the district court would be constructively amending the indictment if it allowed him to be tried for a scheme to defraud other than the one charged in the indictment, namely, a scheme to cause the destruction of the Rear Heard Street building by fire in order to fraudulently claim insurance proceeds for the loss of the building. He also states that these motions were sufficient to preserve his objection that the district court was effecting a material variance between indictment and proof that affected his substantial rights. 30 We fail to see, however, how the motions cited by DeCicco can be deemed constructive amendment or material variance objections. Despite his attempt to spin them that way, the arguments he made in support of his motions were merely an articulation of his view that no charges would survive if the district court granted the motions, particularly with regard to the use-of-fire counts. Moreover, after the district court clearly stated its belief — twice — that the indictment comprehended the theory that the appellant had taken advantage of the fires by submitting false insurance claims, the appellant interposed no objection or argument that this would constitute a constructive amendment of the indictment or a material variance between indictment and proof. Under Fed.R.Crim.P. 51(b), a party may preserve a claim of error by informing the court — when the court ruling or order is made or sought — of the party's objection to the court's action and the grounds for that objection. Here, however, the appellant took no such action. 3 31 In light of these facts, we believe that DeCicco did not preserve his objections and that the plain error test should apply in this instance. Under this standard, there must have been an error, the error must have been plain, and the error must have affected the substantial rights of the appellant. See Olano, 507 U.S. at 732, 113 S.Ct. 1770. If all three elements are satisfied, we have the authority to order correction of the error, but we are not required to do so. Id. at 735, 113 S.Ct. 1770. We exercise this discretion only where the plain error seriously affect[s] the fairness, integrity or public reputation of judicial proceedings. Id. at 736, 113 S.Ct. 1770 (internal citation and quotation marks omitted).
32 The appellant makes two separate constructive amendment claims. First, he reads the indictment to include one theory and one theory only: that he had devised a scheme to submit insurance claims to Scottsdale which were false and fraudulent because he caused the fires (i.e., as the one who started the fires, he was not entitled to any recovery). However, he notes that after the district court ruled that the government had presented insufficient evidence that DeCicco was responsible for the fires, the government shifted its theory in its closing arguments to discuss how the appellant had devised a scheme to submit insurance claims to Scottsdale which were false and fraudulent for reasons entirely independent of whether he caused the fires. When the government made this shift, he argues, it impermissibly broadened the possible bases for conviction beyond those set forth in the indictment returned by the grand jury. This shift in theory, from one in which DeCicco's responsibility for the fires was an essential component of the fraudulent scheme to one in which it was unnecessary, constituted a constructive amendment of the indictment in violation of the Fifth Amendment Grand Jury clause. This shift broadened the scheme charged in the indictment because it permitted his conviction to rest on claims for insurance proceeds which were fraudulent for any reason, not just because DeCicco was responsible for the fires. 33 The appellant, however, misreads the indictment. He is incorrect in maintaining that the indictment did not encompass claims for insurance proceeds that were fraudulent for reasons other than that he had caused the fires. The indictment alleged, in two separate and distinct paragraphs, two separate and distinct ways in which the appellant perpetrated mail fraud: (1) by causing the submission to Scottsdale of false and fraudulent claims for building loss insurance proceeds, and (2) by actually causing the damage to and destruction of the Rear Heard Street building by fire. In other words, the indictment contained two completely separate theories. In the first theory, DeCicco committed mail fraud because he submitted false and fraudulent claims for insurance proceeds after the fire, however it may have started. In the second theory, the appellant committed mail fraud for a different reason. The claims that he submitted were false and fraudulent because he caused the fire (and therefore was not entitled to any recovery). 34 Accordingly, the mail fraud counts of the indictment were not dependent on the theory that the appellant had caused the fires. Instead, they were so fashioned as to comprehend that one could take advantage of a fire and commit mail fraud even without having caused the fire. In other words, the appellant's misrepresentations — for example, in the fraudulent demolition bill or in the phony list of property in the warehouse at the time of the fire or in the letter sent by Lynn to Bottini listing improvements made to the property by DeCicco — could be used to show he committed mail fraud, regardless of whether he started the fires. As such, when the government made the shift complained of by the appellant, the government was not exceeding the scope of the indictment but was merely operating with its confines. 35 Both parties point to the Supreme Court's decision in United States v. Miller, 471 U.S. 130, 105 S.Ct. 1811, 85 L.Ed.2d 99 (1985), to support their respective positions. We think Miller clearly shows that there was no constructive amendment in this case. In Miller, the defendant was convicted of two counts of mail fraud, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1341. The indictment in the case alleged a scheme to defraud with two distinct components; specifically, the indictment alleged both that the defendant had defrauded his insurer by consenting to a burglary in advance and by then lying to the insurer regarding the amount of copper wire which was stolen during that burglary. The trial evidence, however, went only to the allegation that the defendant had lied regarding his copper-wire claim. The government moved to strike the portion of the indictment that alleged the defendant's pre-knowledge of the burglary, but, when the defendant opposed that motion, the entire indictment went to the jury. The defendant was convicted, and on appeal, complained that both prongs of his indictment were not satisfied. 36 The Supreme Court affirmed Miller's conviction, finding that the pre-knowledge of the burglary in Miller's indictment constituted a segregable component of the charged scheme to defraud, and that the evidence presented regarding the inflated copper-wire claim was sufficient to support a conviction. The Court noted that nothing new was added to the grand jury's indictment and that Miller was tried on an indictment that clearly set out the offense for which he was ultimately convicted. Miller, 471 U.S. at 140, 105 S.Ct. 1811. 37 In the present case, the indictment similarly contains two distinct and segregable components. As we have demonstrated above, and contrary to the appellant's assertion that the indictment in this case did not specify any separable, independently fraudulent scheme on which conviction based on a narrower scheme than that charged in the indictment might validly rest, the indictment at issue here alleged two separate and distinct ways in which the appellant perpetrated mail fraud, neither of which was dependent on the other. And just as in Miller, where the removal of the allegation of complicity in the burglary resulted in a permissible narrowing of the indictment, leaving intact the theory that the defendant had submitted inflated insurance claims, so too could the deletion of the allegation of complicity in the fires here result in a permissible narrowing of the indictment, leaving intact the separate theory that the appellant had submitted claims that were false and fraudulent for reasons unrelated to whether he had started the fires. 38 DeCicco's second constructive amendment claim is as follows: The indictment charged him with submitting false and fraudulent claims for building loss insurance proceeds, but the centerpiece of the government's argument to the jury urging it to convict DeCicco of mail fraud was not a false and fraudulent claim for building loss insurance proceeds at all — it was a claim for reimbursement for demolition expenses which the government contended was falsely inflated. DeCicco supports his argument by pointing to how the Scottsdale insurance settlement had two independent components: one amount for the loss of the building, and another amount for the demolition costs. The two were completely separate. He similarly notes how the Scottsdale policy expressly differentiates between building loss and debris removal. In his eyes, the government's reliance on the demolition bill created the strong possibility that he was convicted of an offense other than that charged by the grand jury. This, therefore, constituted a constructive amendment of the indictment. 39 We, however, do not find this argument convincing. The indictment is not tied to any particular provision of the settlement agreement or the Scottsdale policy. As a result, we believe that the grand jury, when issuing its indictment, was speaking generically about building loss and was not using the specific definition of that phrase as provided for in the settlement agreement or the Scottsdale policy. We also think it inconceivable that the grand jury in this instance would issue an indictment limited only to building loss proceeds, as that term was used in the settlement agreement or the Scottsdale policy, when there was ample evidence that the appellant had also submitted false and fraudulent claims relating to demolition or debris removal expenses, as those terms were used in the settlement agreement and the Scottsdale policy. 40 We find, therefore, that there was no constructive amendment of the indictment in this instance. Since there was no error, appellant cannot possibly satisfy the plain error standard.
41 Even if there was no constructive amendment, the appellant argues that there was, at a minimum, a material variance between indictment and proof. In this iteration of his argument, appellant concedes that the charging terms of the indictment are not in dispute. However, he claims that the facts proved at trial were different from those alleged in the indictment. In his view, the indictment alleged facts relating to one theory — namely, that his insurance claims were false and fraudulent because he had caused the fires to occur. The facts presented at trial, however, related to another theory — that his insurance claims were false and fraudulent because he had submitted false documentation in support of his claims. This was a variance, and it was one that affected his substantial rights in two ways: 1) he had insufficient notice to be able to prepare an effective defense to the new theory which the government argued to the jury; and 2) he was prejudiced by the continuing use of evidence which had been admitted solely because it was relevant to the use-of-fire counts. 4 42 This claim, however, fails at its foundation. Once again, the appellant misconstrues the indictment. As we related above, the indictment clearly comprehended the theory that DeCicco's insurance claims were false and fraudulent for reasons unrelated to whether he had caused the fires. In particular, they were false and fraudulent because he had submitted false documentation in support of his claims. The sworn statements in proof of loss and the insurance settlement checks discussed in the indictment clearly related to this theory. Moreover, the facts that were presented at trial related to this theory. For example, facts were presented that he had provided a false demolition bill, that he had provided a phony list of property in the warehouse at the time of the fire, and that he had falsely listed improvements made to the property in the letter sent to Bottini. These falsities all led to the fraudulent sworn statements in proof of loss referenced in the indictment and were what prompted the insurance settlement checks sent by Scottsdale that were also referenced in the indictment. Thus, the facts proved at trial were not different from those alleged in the indictment, and there was no variance. Since there was no variance, we do not reach the question of whether such an alleged variance was material or whether the appellant's substantial rights were affected. 43