Court Opinion

ID: 9465792
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 00:55:49.377071+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:39:22.031610
License: Public Domain

GODBOLD, Circuit Judge,
concurring in part and dissenting in part:
I agree with Judge Tuttle that the case must be reversed but for a different reason.
The portion of the jury instruction that he quotes was immediately preceded by the following instructions:
The defendant contends in response to this charge of the grand jury, ladies and gentlemen, that when he failed to report that he had been issued a check by error in addition to his regular paycheck and instead deposited the extra check in his own bank account, he did not have the specific intent to do something that the law forbids, but instead assumed that the extra check was compensation for back pay which he thought was owed to him by the City of Atlanta, and pursuant to the Comprehensive Employment and Training Act of 1973.
Section 665 of Title 18 of the United States Code provides in pertinent part . that whoever being an officer, director, agent or employee receiving financial assistance under the Comprehensive Employment and Training Act of 1973, embezzles, willfully misapplies, steals or obtains by fraud any of the monies, funds, assets or property which is the subject of a grant or contract of assistance pursuant to this Act, shall be guilty of an offense against the laws of the United States.
For a violation of this particular statute, codified as Section 665A of Title 18 of the United States Code to have occurred, the government is required to prove three essential elements beyond a reasonable doubt:
First, that the defendant was an employee or connected in some capacity with some agency receiving a grant of financial assistance under the Comprehensive Employment and Training Act of 1973.
Second, that the defendant obtained by fraud some money, funds, or other property which was the subject of the grant at or about the time charged.
Third, that the defendant committed such act or acts knowingly and willfully.
The burden is always upon the government to prove beyond a reasonable doubt each and every one of those essential elements which I have just outlined for you. The law never imposes upon a defendant in a criminal case the burden or duty of calling any witnesses or producing any evidence.
In this connection, ladies and gentlemen, I charge that an act is done knowingly if done voluntarily and intentionally and not because of mistake or accident or other innocent reason. The purpose of adding the word “knowingly” is to insure that no one will be convicted for an act *991done because of mistake or accident or other innocent reason.
I further charge you that an act is done willfully if done voluntarily and intentionally and with the specific intent to do something that the law forbids, that is to say, with bad purpose either to disobey or to disregard the law, or stated another way, purposely intending to violate the law.
The statute, Code Section 665A of Title 18 which I just read to you a moment ago talks in terms of embezzles, willfully misapplies, steals or obtains by fraud any of the monies, funds, assets or property which are the subject of a grant or contract of assistance pursuant to the Act. Under the evidence in this case, ladies and gentlemen, I charge you as a matter of law that the government has not proved that there occurred in this case any embezzlement of any funds, nor has the government proved a willful misapplication of funds, or that the funds were stolen. The only issue which you will consider and about which I will instruct you later is whether or not these funds were obtained by the defendant through fraud.
These instructions followed an orderly and reasonable pattern:
(1.) What is the defense? It is “no intent.”
(2.) What are the elements of the offense?
—Employment
—Obtaining by fraud
—A knowing and willful act
(3.) What is knowing and willful? It means voluntarily, intentionally, with specific intent.
(4.) No problem of embezzlement, willful misappropriation * or theft. Fraud is the only issue.
(5.) What is fraud?
This was a clear, orderly and adequate explanation. When the judge followed it with the paragraphs quoted by Judge Tuttle there was no necessity that he reiterate what he had clearly said more than once only a few sentences and a few breaths earlier — that the statute required knowing and willful conduct and knowing and willful meant intent. Throughout the instruction fraud and intent were delineated and described as separate elements. When the judge described fraud he was not required to go back and redescribe the intent element.
In my opinion, however, the supplemental instruction was reversible error. This was' what the original charge was not, a discussion, in isolation, of fraud. At this stage of the proceedings the jury, not experienced in the law like judges, does need a balanced explanation. It would have required only a few sentences to point out that along with fraud there were two other elements of the offense and to note that the defendant was protected by the presumption of innocence and that guilt must be found beyond reasonable doubt. I cannot agree with Judge Rubin that the judge need not give a “balanced instruction” when he responds to a single-shot question. The risk against which the requirement of a balanced instruction protects is the possibility that question and answer, in isolation, may be misleading. It simply begs the question to conclude that, because the question is isolated, no balancing instruction is needed.
I do not agree with Judge Rubin’s theory that as a matter of law what Meadows did, though probably “stealing,” was not fraud. I have no trouble in concluding that one who goes weekly for nearly two and a half months to the pay office of an agency for which he no longer works, and thereby seeks and obtains delivery to himself of paychecks to which he is not entitled, is guilty of fraud. Judge Rubin’s “man of common intelligence” does not have to guess to know this is fraud. The point might be arguable if the check had been mailed to Meadows. Here the check was turned over to his possession only because he went to the place he had no business in going, held out his hand, and somebody placed the check in it. Or perhaps he thrust his hand into a pigeonhole and extracted the check. In any event, it did not fall like *992manna from heaven into his surprised and innocent hand.