Opinion ID: 692299
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Materiality of Waldemer's Statements

Text: 3 In order to convict a grand jury witness of perjury under 18 U.S.C. Sec. 1623, the government must not only prove that the witness's testimony was false, it must also prove that the false testimony was material to a legitimate inquiry of the grand jury. 18 U.S.C. Sec. 1623; United States v. Gulley, 992 F.2d 108, 112-13 (7th Cir.1993). 4 The focus of both parties in this appeal has been on the grand jury's investigation of possible improper payments from the Kassly Law Firm to Waldemer in violation of 29 U.S.C. Sec. 481. In fact, the government predicated its theory of Waldemer's motivation to lie on this statute. However, this is not a criminal statute. Section 841 states that it is improper for an employer to pay any union campaign or business expenses. However, it does not provide criminal sanctions for violating its prohibitions. Under no set of facts, therefore, could the grand jury have indicted Waldemer, or anyone else, for violating this act. Consequently, any perjury relating to an investigation of this statute alone would not meet the materiality requirement of 18 U.S.C. Sec. 1623. 5 The grand jury and trial transcripts, the indictment, and the government's brief, however, reveal the grand jury's broader scope. Former government prosecutor Lee Satterfield, who directed the grand jury investigation of Waldemer, told Waldemer when he testified before the grand jury that the grand jury was investigating him for mail fraud and Travel Act violations. Satterfield also testified at trial that the grand jury's scope included these statutes. The indictment also alleges that the grand jury had been investigating such possible crimes. And the government notes in footnote four of its brief that the grand jury's investigation included possible mail fraud and Travel Act crimes. 6 The government's theory for investigating mail fraud based on union campaign and business expense reimbursements from the Kassly Law Firm to Waldemer rests on Waldemer's deprivation of the Union of its intangible right to loyal, faithful, and honest services. Waldemer accepted the payments, the theory runs, in exchange for his promoting the Kassly Law Firm among union rank and file and his referring union workers to the Kassly Law Firm or Stephen Tillery for personal injury legal work. Waldemer's service to the union was not honest presumably because he did not disclose to the union his acceptance of the Kassly Law Firm payments. 7 One problem with the government's theory, however, is that Waldemer accepted the last of the reimbursements before Congress recognized the intangible rights doctrine in November 1988. 18 U.S.C. Sec. 1346. Therefore, Waldemer ultimately could not have been guilty of mail fraud under the intangible rights theory. See United States v. Bush, 888 F.2d 1145, 1146 (7th Cir.1989) (holding that 18 U.S.C. Sec. 1346 could not apply retroactively in light of the Constitution's prohibitions of ex post facto laws). However, this does not mean that he could not have been guilty under any set of facts. Waldemer specifically told the grand jury that he never received any reimbursements from the Kassly Law Firm. Theoretically, he may have received payments after the 1988 amendment, but his lie may have stymied the grand jury's inquiry in this vein. Materiality only calls for the lie to be a potential impediment, not an actual impediment, of the grand jury's inquiry. Gulley, 992 F.2d at 113. Put another way, as long as Waldemer could have been indicted for mail fraud under some set of plausible facts, his lies regarding whether he received the Kassly Law Firm reimbursements (which might have established part of the fraud scheme as well as the use of the mail) are material. 8 The most solid basis for finding materiality, however, remains the government's investigation of Travel Act violations. The Travel Act requires the government to prove that the defendant travelled interstate with the intent to commit or facilitate one or more predicate crimes and thereafter to act overtly toward the commission or facilitation of the predicate crime. 18 U.S.C. Sec. 1952. Included in the range of predicate crimes is state law bribery. Whether the Kassly Law Firm paid Waldemer for his union business and campaign expenses is material to determining whether a bribery scheme existed. We need not inquire as to whether the government could have proven all elements of the Travel Act; it is sufficient that the grand jury investigated the possibility of such a violation and that Waldemer's testimony had some bearing on one of the elements of the Travel Act. Whether Waldemer received any payments at all from the Kassly Law Firm or Stephen Tillery, and if so, why, bears on whether a bribery scheme existed. Therefore, Waldemer's perjury was material.