Opinion ID: 3065062
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: sufficiency of the evidence

Text: The standard of review for determining the sufficiency of the evidence “is whether, after viewing the evidence in the light most favorable to the prosecution, any rational trier of fact could have found the essential elements of the crime beyond a reasonable doubt.” Jackson v. Virginia, 443 U.S. 307, 319 (1979) (emphasis in original). We review de novo the denial of a motion for acquittal. United States v. Tucker, 133 F.3d 1208, 1214 (9th Cir. 1998). We review for an abuse of discretion the district court’s ruling on a defendant’s motion for a new trial. See United States v. Mack, 362 F.3d 597, 600 (9th Cir. 2004). [1] Under the Hobbs Act, political campaign contributions rise to the level of extortion if they are “made in return for an explicit promise or undertaking by the official to perform or not to perform an official act”—that is, a quid pro quo. McCormick v. United States, 500 U.S. 257, 273 (1991). Similarly, when the government seeks to prove honest services fraud in the form of bribery, it must prove a quid pro quo. United States v. Kincaid-Chauncey, 556 F.3d 923, 943 (9th Cir. 2009). 12152 UNITED STATES v. INZUNZA [2] Our court has elaborated on the type of evidence that will sustain a finding of quid pro quo: [W]hat McCormick requires is that the quid pro quo be clear and unambiguous, leaving no uncertainty about the terms of the bargain . . . . [T]he explicitness requirement serves to distinguish between contributions that are given or received with the “anticipation” of official action and contributions that are given or received in exchange for a “prom- ise” of official action. When a contributor and an official clearly understand the terms of a bargain to exchange official action for money, they have moved beyond “anticipation” and into an arrangement that the Hobbs Act forbids. This understanding need not be verbally explicit. The jury may consider both direct and circumstantial evidence, including the context in which a conversation took place, to determine if there was a meeting of the minds on a quid pro quo. United States v. Carpenter, 961 F.2d 824, 827 (9th Cir. 1992) (internal citation omitted). [3] We confess considerable uneasiness in applying this standard to the acceptance of campaign contributions because, in our flawed but nearly universal system of private campaign financing, large contributions are commonly given in expectation of favorable official action. The Supreme Court was sensitive to this issue in McCormick: Money is constantly being solicited on behalf of candidates, who run on platforms and who claim sup- port on the basis of their views and what they intend to do or have done. Whatever ethical considerations and appearances may indicate, to hold that legislators commit the crime of federal extortion when they act for the benefit of constituents or support legislaUNITED STATES v. INZUNZA 12153 tion furthering the interests of some of their constituents, shortly before or after campaign contributions are solicited and received from those beneficiaries, is an unrealistic assessment of what Congress could have meant by making it a crime to obtain property from another, with his consent, “under color of official right.” McCormick, 500 U.S. at 272. How, then, in the potentially polluted atmosphere of campaign contributions, can we tell a criminal agreement from a large campaign contribution accepted from a contributor who expects favorable results? The Supreme Court’s answer lies in the level of explicitness, which permits a line to be drawn legally if not according to ethical perfection. The receipt of [campaign] contributions is . . . vulnerable under the Act as having been taken under color of official right, but only if the payments are made in return for an explicit promise or undertaking by the official to perform or not perform an official act. In such situations the official asserts that his official conduct will be controlled by the terms of the promise or undertaking. Id. at 273. We note that this requirement of explicitness refers to the promise of official action, not the connection between the contribution and the promise. An official may be convicted without evidence equivalent to a statement such as: “Thank you for the $10,000 campaign contribution. In return for it, I promise to introduce your bill tomorrow.” The connection between the explicit promise of official action and the contribution must be proved, but the proof may be circumstantial, under the test as it is stated in McCormick and elaborated in Carpenter, 961 F.2d at 827. [4] So stated, the test may still leave grey areas where the connection between contribution and promise is sufficiently 12154 UNITED STATES v. INZUNZA attenuated that permitting a jury to speculate on the requisite connection between contribution and promise would stretch the Act beyond its intended application. Candidates campaigning for office, at a time when contributions are being solicited and received, may assert quite explicitly an intention to take certain official actions, yet few would conclude that Congress intend to make such conduct, without more, a crime. Our review of the record in this case, however, leads us to conclude that Inzunza’s conviction raises no such concerns. The jury could properly find that Inzunza’s conduct met the quid pro quo requirement. There was no absence of very explicit promises, made directly to the person delivering the contributions, regarding actions Inzunza would take toward repealing the No-Touch ordinance. The circumstances of the promises, including their covert nature, their detail, and the deception in carrying them out, were such that the jury could connect them causally to campaign contributions privately made at or near the same time. [5] Inzunza contends that, because so much evidence of his conduct came from second- and third-hand accounts of his statements and actions, admitted either as admissions of a party opponent or statements in furtherance of the conspiracy, the evidence was insufficient. It is true that statements by coconspirators do not support a conviction and are not admissible unless they are corroborated by other evidence of the conspiracy and the defendant’s involvement. United States v. Silverman, 861 F.2d 571, 577 (9th Cir. 1988). Inzunza does not contend that this evidence was improperly admitted, but he claims that the district court “almost exclusively relied on alleged co-conspirator statements to sustain the convictions.” Because the statements are so unreliable, he argues, the convictions cannot be sustained. His characterization of the record is not accurate, however. In addition to statements of co-conspirators regarding Inzunza’s involvement, the jury also heard several other items of evidence, including several recordings of Inzunza’s own voice as described in the following paragraph. UNITED STATES v. INZUNZA 12155 On January 15, 2002, Inzunza and Malone discussed the need to provide Zucchet with additional funds, and Malone assured him that “it would be very, very, ah, discreet this time.” On February 7, 2002, Inzunza asked Malone for a few thousand dollars more to support Zucchet’s campaign. Malone told him “I may need a favor,” and Inzunza replied, “Right right. Well, just let me know what’s going on.” On May 13, 2002, Malone and Inzunza discussed their plan to use Detective Bristol, and Inzunza stated, “[W]e’ll throw in four or five things that sort of slaps you guys on the hand, and then we’ll allow touching.” He also said that if news of the plan to repeal the No-Touch ordinance got out to the media, he would tell them he wanted to toughen the ordinance. On October 14, 2002, Inzunza and Malone discussed the emails that were sent to Detective Bristol, and Inzunza requested an additional $3,000. On February 10, 2003, Malone, Inzunza, and Zucchet had an extensive discussion of the No-Touch ordinance and strategies to get it repealed. Malone stated, “If you guys need anything, whatever, whatever you need we’re here and happy to help.” On March 20, 2003, Malone and Inzunza discussed the fact that Zucchet had set up a meeting with the wrong police officer, who was not in on the plan. Malone asked Inzunza to tell Zucchet not to mention the NoTouch ordinance. In denying Inzunza’s motion for acquittal, the district court noted that Malone passed several checks to Inzunza and (at Inzunza’s urging) Zucchet. It also noted that Inzunza took official action, as he said he would, to achieve the repeal of the No-Touch ordinance by contacting Detective Bristol, scheming to fabricate emails seeking increased restrictions on adult entertainment, instructing staff to compose memoranda, and lobbying the Committee chair to support the repeal of the No-Touch ordinance. [6] This independent corroborating evidence permitted the jury to credit the statements of the co-conspirators quoting Inzunza (“I’ll make sure we get that on [the] docket”; “You 12156 UNITED STATES v. INZUNZA support [Zucchet], we’ll get it off” or referring to him as a coconspirator (“Don’t worry about Ralph. Ralph is with me.”; “These guys are willing to bend over backward for us.”). Therefore, the district judge did not err by basing his conclu- sion partly on the statements of co-conspirators. Inzunza also argues that considering each charge separately, the evidence “temporally relevant” to each charge is insufficient. Thus, D’Intino’s 2001 quotation of Inzunza, “[Y]ou support [Zucchet], we’ll get it off,” was insufficient to support a finding that the July 12, 2001, phone conversation between Inzunza and Malone involved a quid pro quo. Without that piece of evidence, Inzunza argues, there is nothing to show that Inzunza had any knowledge of the No-Touch ordinance until 2002. With the other corroboration discussed above, however, a juror could credit this statement of a coconspirator. Inzunza next contends that the receipt of campaign contributions on February 28, 2002, was not shown to pertain to any particular official act, and therefore, it could not suffice to show a quid pro quo, citing United States v. Chong, 419 F.3d 1076, 1082-83 (9th Cir. 2005), a murder-for-hire case where the payment was not shown to be in return for the murder. Conversely, Inzunza concedes that he had knowledge of the desired official act during phone calls on May 13 and July 31, 2002, but at that point no money was changing hands. It is true that the “favor” mentioned in the February 7 phone call was not specified in that phone call, but a rational juror could fairly conclude beyond a reasonable doubt that throughout the Malone-Inzunza relationship, reciprocity was understood and often stated. See Kincaid-Chauncey, 556 F.3d at 943 (holding that quid pro quo need not be tied to a specific official act, so long as evidence shows a pattern of gifts in exchange for official actions). For similar reasons, the actions discussed in the May 13 and July 31 phone calls could be understood to pertain to contributions made at other times. Inzunza attempts to divorce the phone calls from the payments, but circumstantial UNITED STATES v. INZUNZA 12157 evidence of a quid pro quo related to Inzunza’s explicit promises of official action can serve to sustain the verdict. See id.; United States v. Ganim, 510 F.3d 134, 148-49 (2d Cir. 2007). With respect to the alleged $3,000 bribe discussed on October 14, 2002, Inzunza contends that certain conversations undermine proof of his specific intent. Particularly, he cites his lack of a promise and Zucchet’s February 10, 2003, statement (made in Inzunza’s presence) that he was “not promising anything” and that Malone should not be “too optimistic” about repealing the No-Touch ordinance. Taken in context, these statements do not undermine Inzunza’s overarching promise to take several official actions aimed at repeal of the ordinance; Zucchet’s statement merely disclaims any guaranteed legislative result. And as before, the scheme to stage a police request for legislative changes and the overall pattern of campaign contributions with reference to the No-Touch ordinance supports the jury’s finding that these telephone calls and those occurring on February 12, February 24, and March 20, 2003, involved a quid pro quo relationship between Inzunza’s promised actions and the contributions. Finally, Inzunza contends that the jury rejected Galardi’s testimony about cash payments in March and April 2003 and therefore this evidence could not support his honest services conspiracy conviction. As explained above, there was sufficient evidence from which a rational jury could find that Inzunza conspired to commit honest services fraud without any reference to these last payments.2 2 Inzunza also contends that the outcome was prejudiced by evidence of a conspiracy involving Detective Bristol and Galardi, where Detective Bristol accepted bribes in exchange for giving advance notice of vice inspections of the strip clubs. “Whether the evidence is easily compartmentalized is of foremost importance” in determining whether evidentiary spillover was prejudicial; “[e]vidence is susceptible of compartmentalization when the acts constituting the crimes . . . are discrete.” United States v. Duran, 189 F.3d 1071, 1081-82 (9th Cir. 1999) (internal quotation 12158 UNITED STATES v. INZUNZA [7] For these reasons, Inzunza’s claim of insufficient evidence has no merit, and the district court properly denied his motion for a judgment of acquittal and his motion for a new trial.