Court Opinion

ID: 9483090
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 09:10:28.791252+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:49:24.741445
License: Public Domain

RYMER, Circuit Judge,
dissenting:
I dissent because all of the matters about which Judge Noonan writes so passionately were resolved by the jury, who acquitted Barker on most charges but convicted on these, and the district judge, who denied Barker’s motion for a new trial on these counts. The jury was entitled to disbelieve the Barkers, and I respectfully disagree that we should serve as the fourteenth, fifteenth and sixteenth jurors.
There was evidence on each of the counts of conviction on which the jury could find Barker guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. On Count 33(b), there were daily reports signed by Wayne Barker as well as quality control reports which showed that three supervisors worked Saturday and Monday, but only one worked on Sunday. Contrary to the spin Barker put on the records, there was evidence that asterisks were used to indicate that equipment was checked out but not in use, so that the jury could find that while three pickup trucks were on the site on Sunday, only one supervisor was present. Thus it could reasonably have concluded that Barker’s claim for payment for three supervisors for all three days was false.
On Counts 48(b) and 57(b) there was evidence that Barker charged the government twenty-five percent for overhead throughout the project and in all claims except for these two, he did not bill the government for his time. Barker’s accountant said that Barker’s wages were always included in overhead costs, and that if a person’s wages are normally billed as a part of overhead and then are shifted and billed as a direct cost, the overhead charge should show a corresponding decrease. Exhibits showed that the overhead for the claims at issue was the same as the claims on which Barker’s salary was not direct billed. Based on the absence of any corresponding decrease in overhead, the jury could find beyond a reasonable doubt that the claims were false. .
As the government had no obligation to prove intent to defraud, but merely that the claims were false, United States v. *1280Milton, 602 F.2d 231 (9th Cir.1979), I would affirm.