United States v. Larry Peterman

841 F.2d 1474, 1988 WL 19292
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit
DecidedJune 7, 1988
Docket85-1993
StatusPublished
Cited by78 cases

This text of 841 F.2d 1474 (United States v. Larry Peterman) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Tenth 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. Larry Peterman, 841 F.2d 1474, 1988 WL 19292 (10th Cir. 1988).

Opinion

TACHA, Circuit Judge.

Larry Peterman appeals from his conviction for wire fraud and conspiracy to commit wire fraud. He also appeals from the enhancement of his sentence by the district court. We affirm the conviction, but because of the lack of findings, we remand for resentencing.

Peterman was the founder of “Meat Masters,” a chain of stores that sold sides of beef and other large quantities of meat to the public. Meat Masters stores were located in Utah and Wyoming. The stores advertised their products on Salt Lake City and Cheyenne television stations and in print media throughout the area. Consumers were instructed to call a toll-free telephone number to arrange appointments for the purchase of meat. Over 400 consumers bought meat from Meat Masters through its stores in Casper, Cheyenne, and Eden, Wyoming.

Peterman and other Meat Masters employees were indicted for consumer fraud arising from the sale of meat in the stores in Wyoming. The nine defendants were charged with various fraudulent practices in the advertising and sale of meat in violation of the wire fraud provisions of 18 U.S.C. § 1343. Peterman and three other defendants were convicted in a trial in 1981. This court reversed Peterman’s conviction because of the district court’s failure to give a good faith instruction to the jury. United States v. Hopkins, 744 F.2d *1477 716 (10th Cir.1984) (en banc). 1 Peterman was again convicted in 1985 and sentenced to three years in prison.

Peterman brings four allegations on appeal: (1) the district court’s instructions to the jury expanded the scope of the indictment, (2) the court erred in allowing the government to introduce evidence of the 1981 conviction of one of Peterman’s original codefendants, (3) the court erred in allowing the prosecution to read parts of Peterman’s testimony from the 1981 trial into the record, and (4) the court improperly enhanced the sentence.

I.

Peterman alleges that the district court’s instructions to the jury improperly expanded the scope of the indictment. In particular, Peterman contends that the court’s definition of “bait and switch” tactics allowed the jury to reach a guilty verdict on the basis of a theory not relied upon by the grand jury in delivering the indictment.

Jury instructions may not include an element of an offense if that element was not charged in the indictment. United States v. Sloan, 811 F.2d 1359, 1363 (10th Cir.1987). The court in United States v. Lemire, 720 F.2d 1327, 1344 (D.C.Cir.1983), cert. denied, 467 U.S. 1226, 104 S.Ct. 2678, 81 L.Ed.2d 874 (1984), noted two dangers that arise from a substantial deviation of instructions from an indictment. First, a defendant is required to answer to a charge that was not brought by a grand jury, thus violating the express language of the fifth amendment that “[n]o person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a Grand Juiy.” Second, a defendant is denied suffi-dent notice to present and prepare an adequate defense to the crime charged. Nevertheless, instructions necessarily deviate somewhat from an indictment because instructions explain to a jury how the law relates to the facts presented at trial. Therefore, instructions will be found invalid only if their deviation from the indictment infringes on a defendant’s rights. Lemire, 720 F.2d at 1344; see also Sloan, 811 F.2d at 1362-63. 2

Count one of the indictment charged Peterman with “using deceptive sales techniques and making false representations to victim-consumers.” The indictment alleged that "different consumer-victims were deceived in varying ways,” including “the use of ‘bait and switch’ tactics, in which the Defendants persuaded consumers to purchase more expensive cuts of meat than those advertised, by making the advertised cuts either unavailable or so unattractive in appearance that no reasonable consumer would purchase them.” The indictment then recited several overt acts that Peter-man had allegedly committed, such as “pro-vid[ing] certain advertised items of bonus meats which were green and moldy,” failure to provide consumers with promised bonus meat, selling “a quantity of spoiled pork that was part of the bonus package,” and selling meat to one customer with "an estimated cutting loss of 47%, and ... overcharging him] an additional 20c per pound, for ‘custom cutting’, contrary to the representations of the Defendants.” The indictment identified twenty-one specific instances in which the defendant had sold or participated in the sale of meat in furtherance of the charged offense.

The court instructed the jury as follows:

*1478 Count 1 of the indictment charges as a part of the conspiracy to defraud, that bait and switch tactics were used by the defendant in the operation of various Meat Masters stores.
Under Wyoming law, a person engages unlawfully in a deceptive trade practice when he knowingly in the course of his business and in connection with a consumer transaction engages in bait and switch advertising.
Bait and switch advertising consists of an offer to sell merchandise, which the seller doesn’t intend to sell, which advertising is accompanied by one or more of the following practices:
A. Refusal to show the merchandise advertised; or
B. False disparagement in any material respect to the advertised merchandise or the terms of sale; or
C. Requiring undisclosed tie-in sales, or other undisclosed conditions to be met prior to selling the advertised merchandise; or
D. Knowingly showing or demonstrating defective merchandise, which is unusable or impractical for the purpose set forth in the advertisement; or
E. Accepting a deposit for the merchandise and subsequently charging the buyer for a higher priced beef item without his consent, or
F. Willful failure to make either deliveries of the merchandise or to make a refund therefor.

Even assuming that part of the definition of bait and switch in the jury instructions diverged from the activities alleged in the indictment, no evidence was offered at trial to prove the offenses described in the objectionable parts of the instructions. Instead, the evidence produced at trial was consistent with the activities the government alleged in the indictment.

Fourteen consumers who had purchased meat from Meat Masters testified against Peterman at trial. Their testimony was strikingly consistent. They described a pattern of sales tactics that shows that this was perhaps the classic “bait and switch” case.

A prospective consumer learned of Meat Masters through advertisements for meat priced at 97$, 99$, $1.04, $1.09, or $1.29 per pound. The consumer then called Meat Masters on its toll free telephone number to arrange an appointment at one of its stores.

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Bluebook (online)
841 F.2d 1474, 1988 WL 19292, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-larry-peterman-ca10-1988.