United States v. Edward P. Knop

701 F.2d 670, 1983 U.S. App. LEXIS 30007, 12 Fed. R. Serv. 1252
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit
DecidedMarch 2, 1983
Docket82-1078
StatusPublished
Cited by30 cases

This text of 701 F.2d 670 (United States v. Edward P. Knop) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
United States v. Edward P. Knop, 701 F.2d 670, 1983 U.S. App. LEXIS 30007, 12 Fed. R. Serv. 1252 (7th Cir. 1983).

Opinions

PELL, Circuit Judge.

Defendant-Appellant was charged in a three-count indictment with violating 18 U.S.C. § 1014 by making false statements to federally insured banks. A jury found him guilty on all three counts.

Count one charged him with willfully overvaluing land in a financial statement submitted to the Farmers National Bank. It was charged, and the jury found, that the defendant’s financial statement overvalued land he owned in Wisconsin and overstated the extent of his interest in land he owned in Iowa. Count two charged, and the jury found, that the defendant had submitted the same false statements, as alleged in count one, to the Moline Illinois National Bank. Count three charged, and the jury found, that the defendant had submitted to the Moline Illinois National Bank a list of accounts receivable containing an account that had previously been paid in full.

I

One of appellant’s contentions is that the Government did not prove an essential element of the alleged crimes, namely that the banks in question were federally insured at the time of the commission of the alleged offenses. Appellant’s contention is a challenge not only to federal jurisdiction, an essential element of which is proof of the banks’ federal insurance status as of the time of the commission of the offense, but also to the sufficiency of the evidence required to prove an essential element of the charged offenses. A reversal based on insufficiency of the evidence requires entry of a judgment of acquittal; a second trial would be precluded by the Constitution’s guarantee against double jeopardy. Burks v. United States, 437 U.S. 1, 98 S.Ct. 2141, 57 L.Ed.2d 1 (1978).

Interjected between questions relating to identification of the defendant and the promissory notes, the following is the colloquy between appellee’s counsel and the banks’ officials relating to the banks’ federal insurance status:

Q. Mr. Lindsey [President of Farmers National Bank], is your bank insured by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation?
A. Yes, it is.
Q. May I have that back, Mr. Lindsey?
A. (Handing document).
Q. Mr. Lindsey, I am going to hdnd you what has been marked for identification as “Government’s Exhibit No. 3,” and ask you would you tell us what that is.
A. It is a promissory note to Farmers National Bank by Edward P. Knop for $40,823.12.
* * * * * *
[Questioning of the vice-president of the
Moline National Bank].
Q. So this note was given very shortly after the defendant presented his statement, the two-page typewritten document?
A. Yes.
Q. Is either of these notes repaid?
A. No, sir.
Q. Mr. Normoyk, is your bank insured by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation?
A. Yes, sir.

In this case, as in United States v. Safley, 408 F.2d 603 (4th Cir.), cert. denied 395 U.S. 983, 89 S.Ct. 2147, 23 L.Ed.2d 772 (1969), appellant “did not object that the employee^’] testimony was irrelevant, as well it might have been if it referred only to the time of trial.” Id. at 605. Nor did the appellant make even a passing reference in his motion for judgment of acquittal, to a claim that the banks were not insured by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) at the time of the commission of the offenses. His argument was directed only to the paucity of the Government’s proof of the substantive aspects of the charged offenses. See id.

[673]*673Taken woodenly and literally the testimony might seem to refer only to the time of the trial. In context1 it could plausibly have been taken by the jury as referring to the time of the commission of the offenses, as the court held in Sañey, a case which is strikingly similar to the case at bar. The Government’s summation to the jury suggests that it viewed the evidence as relating to the banks’ federal insurance status at the time of commission of the offenses. Counsel stated: “Well, you heard both Mr. Lindsey and Mr. Normoyk testify that their banks were insured by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, the FDIC.” Appellant’s counsel’s summation to the jury did not challenge proof of the banks’ federal insurance status, but merely argued that the statements presented by the appellant to the banks were not false. Most importantly, the court instructed the jury in great detail that proof of the bank’s federally insured status at the time of commission of the alleged offenses was an essential element which, as in the case of the other elements, must be proved beyond a reasonable doubt, otherwise the defendant must be found not guilty. The jury verdict obviously reflected the view of the jury that there was the proper insurance at the appropriate time. We decline to indulge in the assumption that the jury willfully failed to follow the court’s instructions.

Where the jury returns a guilty verdict, as in this case, the Government is entitled on appeal to the benefit of all reasonable inferences from the evidence. United States v. Garcia-Geronimo, 663 F.2d 738, 744 (7th Cir.1981). We also note that federal law mandates that national banks be federally insured, see 12 U.S.C. § 1814(b). We believe that from the evidence, viewed in context, the jury could and did draw the reasonable inference that the banks were federally insured at the time of commission of the offenses.2 See United States v. Safley, 408 F.2d at 605.

We hesitate to suggest that counsel for the defendant deliberately engaged in a “sandbagging” process. Yet we cannot ignore what a unique opportunity this situation presents. Counsel aware of the lack of pinpointing of the time to the offense could easily have objected to the question as being irrelevant because of its reference to the insurance status as of the time of the testimony. Counsel would also have been aware had he done so that the objection would have been sustained and the Government could easily have brought in the requisite proof.

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Bluebook (online)
701 F.2d 670, 1983 U.S. App. LEXIS 30007, 12 Fed. R. Serv. 1252, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-edward-p-knop-ca7-1983.