Opinion ID: 219640
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Time Records and Leave

Text: Mr. Ransom asserts that he was entitled to the same amount of money regardless of what his timesheets stated; therefore, the money he received for misreported hours did not belong to the governmenta required element for theft of public money. He further claims the time records are also therefore immaterial to any alleged scheme to steal money. And the materiality of a falsehood is a required element of wire fraud. Neder v. United States, 527 U.S. 1, 25, 119 S.Ct. 1827, 144 L.Ed.2d 35 (1999). Mr. Ransom points out that the government has admitted it cannot identify a single authority to show a direct relation between his time records and his paychecks. He argues that the multiple authorities the government has presented to make that connection are too attenuated and confusing to provide him with proper notice of the illegality of his actions, thereby undermining his ability to knowingly commit any crime. We disagree with Mr. Ransom's assertion that his time records were wholly unrelated to his compensation. His time records affected his leave balances. Mr. Ransom does not dispute the government's evidence that he accrued leave at his HUD job. He clearly does not qualify for the narrow class of people that an agency head may exclude from annual and sick leave provisions under 5 C.F.R. § 630.211 (the criteria include that the excluded officer of an agency be a Presidential appointee). Leave, as the word implies, accounts for time when an employee would normally be working but is absent. According to a HUD human resource specialist's testimony, if employees were not reporting a full 80 hours worked in a two-week pay period, they had to account for the time missed with an approved form of leave. Categories of leave include annual (vacation) leave, sick leave, or leave without pay. See e.g. id. § 630.1202 (Leave without pay means an absence from duty in a nonpay status. Leave without pay may be taken only for those hours of duty comprising an employee's basic workweek.) Leave has a monetary value. For example, it can be used for paid vacation time. When employees who accrue leave depart government service, they are entitled to a lump sum payment for unused leave. See 5 C.F.R. § 550.1203. That payment is calculated by multiplying the number of hours of accumulated and accrued annual leave by the applicable hourly rate of pay (subject to some outlined adjustments). Id. § 550.1205. Likewise, a federal employee is financially responsible for leave taken in excess of what the employee has accrued. See 5 U.S.C. § 6302(f); 5 C.F.R. § 630.209. As the district court observed: the very concept of `leave without pay' taken when an employee has no leave from which to draw, presumes that an employee is not entitled to pay in the event he must be absent from work but cannot take leave to cover the absence. 1 Aplt.App. 130. Mr. Ransom's assertion that his time records did not influence his pay does not square with his time records accounting for his accrual and use of leave. His use of leave for absences was what entitled him to a full paycheck in pay periods when he had not worked a full 80 hours. Therefore, when he did not use leave for time when he was not working, he was wrongly taking money from the government because leave has financial value. To justify his position, Mr. Ransom claims that he only needed to take leave for full-day absences. [4] But relevant authority and Mr. Ransom's own practice contradict this claim. Under 5 C.F.R. § 630.206, the minimum charge for leave unless otherwise established by an agency is one hour. Undisputed evidence showed that Mr. Ransom did at times use leave to be absent for partial days between the hours of 8:00 a.m. and 4:30 p.m. Finally, Mr. Ransom argues that he was not statutorily required to work weekdays between the hours of 8:00 a.m. and 4:30 p.m. But 5 C.F.R. §§ 610.111 and 610.121 provide heads of agencies with the legal authority to establish such work schedule boundaries. And the evidence showed that HUD did require its supervisors and managers at Mr. Ransom's level to be present in the office during official business hours. Thus, contrary to Mr. Ransom's arguments, we find legal authority tying his time records regarding those specific hours to his leave balancesand therefore his paychecks.