Opinion ID: 2656159
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Wade’s Testimony

Text: Wilkes argues that Williams’s testimony would have contradicted Wade’s testimony in two respects: (1) whether DoD officials’ concerns about ADCS’s performance on the Panama Project were “justified,” and (2) whether ADCS planned a “change in focus” involving hardware sales. As with Combs’s testimony, Williams’s testimony does not directly contradict Wade’s. 16 UNITED STATES V. WILKES
in Panama Wade testified that Gary Jones and Paul Behrens, two officials with the DoD, expressed concerns over “pricing and performance,” including issues surrounding the inventory of equipment. Wade further testified that those concerns were “justified,” and that he and Wilkes had met to discuss their response. Wade noted that the plan was to meet the officials, and if Wilkes and Wade did not allay their suspicions, to involve Cunningham. Wade also testified that Bob Fromm, a different DoD official, expressed concerns, and that they were “justified.” Williams testified that government concerns that Wilkes was blocking the bar-coding effort to steal the equipment were not “justified.” He also testified that concerns about ADCS billing for work that it did not do were not “justified.” These statements do not directly contradict Wade’s testimony in the manner contemplated by Straub. Wade’s statement that the concerns were “justified” is a matter of opinion. Two parties can truthfully hold differing opinions at the same time. Accordingly, Williams’s testimony does not amount to a direct contradiction.
Wade also testified that he and Wilkes discussed a “change in focus” from “scanning to buying hardware and software.” Wade further testified that he and Wilkes would mark up, sometimes by 600 percent, the cost of the equipment sold to the government, which was more lucrative than providing scanning services. UNITED STATES V. WILKES 17 Williams testified that he did not believe ADCS was only awarded a hardware contract due to a “change in focus.” But this does not directly contradict Wade’s testimony regarding a specific conversation between Wade and Wilkes. Williams merely notes that, as far as he was aware, one specific contract awarded to ADCS for hardware was not awarded “because ADCS decided to have a shift in focus.” Wilkes thus fails the first prong of the Straub test. He is unable to identify a single direct contradiction between the testimony Williams would have offered at trial and testimony offered by an immunized government witness. Accordingly, the district court’s conclusion that failure to compel use immunity for Williams did not violate Wilkes’s right to a fair trial is correct. Straub, 538 F.3d at 1162.