Opinion ID: 3001508
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Other matters pertaining to mail fraud and the

Text: indictment Sorich, McCarthy, and Slattery raise a host of other challenges to their convictions. We find these arguments unpersuasive, and briefly discuss those substantial enough to warrant written comment.
McCarthy contends that insufficient evidence ties the use of the mails to his two counts of conviction. With respect Nos. 06-4251, 06-4252, 06-4253 & 06-4254 21 to count two, Dennis Henderson testified that he received a job in the Sewers Department in return for political work, and for count five, Jeffrey Harness, an ordinary applicant, testified that he was passed over for a job as a building inspector. Both Henderson and Harness testified that they received their letters in the mail. McCarthy challenges this point, suggesting that the letters may have been hand delivered, but we will not overturn the jury’s decision to credit Henderson’s and Harness’s testimony. McCarthy also contends that the Harness letter was insufficiently connected to the hiring scheme because Harness received it after the illegitimate “winner” of the position was found out and forced to resign in disgrace. But the overall hiring scheme continued, and this paperwork lent a false air of propriety and regularity to the city’s hiring process. See Fernandez, 282 F.3d at 508.
Slattery argues that insufficient evidence shows that he joined the fraudulent scheme and possessed the specific intent to defraud. The argument has very little merit. To start with, Slattery personally falsified hundreds, if not thousands, of interview forms. He contends that “the forms cannot be accurately described as true or false,” but this is a bit too philosophical for us, as we suspect it was for the jury. The forms contained numerical scores for such categories as, in a truck driver hiring sequence, driving ability and past driving experience. Although these criteria are perhaps subjective, filling them out willy-nilly and dozens at a time—high scores for blessed applicants, low scores for the rest, without even an attempt to quantify their skills—can fairly be described as falsification. 22 Nos. 06-4251, 06-4252, 06-4253 & 06-4254 The government presented other damning evidence of Slattery’s participation and his intent to defraud. A union complained after its members did poorly in one hiring sequence, and one of the city’s labor liaisons asked Slattery for the interview forms to back up the city’s hiring decisions. Only one problem: the interview forms had not been completed yet. According to the liaison’s testimony, after Slattery delivered this “shocking” news, she said, “Pat, please tell me you had a legitimate business reason for selecting the people that you selected. Did you base it on performance, attendance, anything?” She testified that Slattery replied, “no.” On appeal, Slattery attacks her credibility, but we will not upset the jury’s decision to believe her. Slattery also pleads ignorance, saying that no juror could have found that he even knew that a fraudulent hiring system was afoot, let alone joined it. We think the jury was well-supported in rejecting this contention. Slattery and Sorich were good friends, and Daniel Katalinic, a former deputy commissioner of Streets and Sanitation who ran a political organization, testified that he overheard Slattery complain that his own political workers were not getting choice enough jobs, and that he would talk to Sorich about the matter. Katalinic also testified, as did Slattery’s boss Jack Drumgould, that Slattery accompanied Drumgould to meetings in which Sorich would hand out a group of blessed applicants, and that Slattery sometimes took names directly from Sorich and passed them on to Drumgould for hiring. A reasonable jury could find beyond a reasonable doubt on this evidence that Slattery joined the scheme with an intent to defraud. Nos. 06-4251, 06-4252, 06-4253 & 06-4254 23
Sorich and McCarthy contend that the district court abused its discretion by refusing to dismiss a portion of the indictment that the government amended by superseding indictment thirteen days prior to trial. The government contends that after reviewing its trial proof, it decided to substitute one mailing for another on count two in order to strengthen its case and to avoid having to rely on a witness with shaky credibility. The defendants can neither show that this minor change prejudiced them in any concrete way—by demonstrating, for example, that their attorney was unable to prepare in time—nor rebut the government’s explanation that it simply wished to tighten its case. They have failed to make out a due process claim on this point. See United States v. McMutuary, 217 F.3d 477, 481-82 (7th Cir. 2000). McCarthy argues that count five—which charged mail fraud in the hiring of two unqualified union officials’ sons as building inspectors—was inconsistent with the remainder of the indictment. The indictment charged a scheme of false hiring exclusively for political campaign work, he argues, whereas in this count, hiring was based on nepotism. But as in United States v. Stout, 965 F.2d 340, 344 (7th Cir. 1992), McCarthy’s “interpretation of the indictment is too narrow.” In the very first paragraph of the indictment’s “overview of the scheme” section, this text appears: “In addition, in some cases Sorich and others rewarded other favored persons and groups with City jobs and promotions.” Fairly read, the scheme set out in the indictment is fraudulent hiring of cronies—usually political cronies, but not always—and count five fits in this scheme. 24 Nos. 06-4251, 06-4252, 06-4253 & 06-4254