United States v. Raether

940 F. Supp. 1485, 1996 WL 585919
CourtDistrict Court, D. South Dakota
DecidedOctober 7, 1996
DocketCR 95-40012
StatusPublished

This text of 940 F. Supp. 1485 (United States v. Raether) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, D. South Dakota primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
United States v. Raether, 940 F. Supp. 1485, 1996 WL 585919 (D.S.D. 1996).

Opinion

MEMORANDUM OPINION AND ORDER

PIERSOL, District Judge.

Defendant Roger Raether moves to dismiss Count II of the indictment, which charges him under 18 U.S.C. § 1001 with making a false statement as to a material matter within the jurisdiction of the General Services Administration (GSA). He argues dismissal is proper because the statement at issue falls within the “exculpatory no” doctrine as adopted by the Eighth Circuit in United States v. Taylor, 907 F.2d 801, 802 (8th Cir.1990). The Court heard argument on the motion and, for the reasons set out below, the Court denies the motion.

At the first trial in this ease, the government presented the testimony of Peggy Lowndes, a GSA official in California, and played for the jury an audiotape of a telephone conversation between Ms. Lowndes and defendant Raether. The transcript of this conversation is appended to the government’s response to the motion to dismiss Count II. (Doc. 171.) Ms. Lowndes testified at the prior trial that she had authority to approve or disapprove the release of certain federal excess property and that, prior to her telephone conversation with defendant Raether, she had refused to approve an SF-122 form for the release of a 300-ton crane located in California that defendant Raether had screened for the Seminole Tribe of Florida. Ms. Lowndes testified that an FBI agent asked her in October 1993 to place a telephone call to defendant Raether for the purpose of gathering information. The agent provided the equipment needed to tape the telephone call and showed Ms. Lowndes how to use it. Her first attempt at reaching defendant Raether in October was not successful, but she later recorded the conversation that occurred in November 1993 when defendant Raether returned her call. This telephone conversation lasted approximately fifteen to thirty minutes. The basis of the false statement charge in Count II is the following exchange which occurred during the conversation:

PEGGY LOWNDES: Uh-huh. Has— has — has there ever been any discussion involving property acquired for sale? ROGER RAETHER: I don’t know anything about that okay? All I do is acquire the stuff for the Seminóles, okay?

(Doc. 171, Tr. at 1109.) Defendant Raether argues that his response to Ms. Lowndes’s question falls within the “exculpatory no” exception and thus, no basis exists to prosecute him for making a false statement.

In Taylor, the government appealed from the district court’s dismissal of two counts of an indictment charging Felix Taylor with making false statements during a bankruptcy court hearing. Taylor, 907 F.2d at 802. The district court dismissed the counts based upon the judicially-created “exculpatory no” exception to a prosecution under § 1001. Id. The Eighth Circuit adopted the “exculpatory no” doctrine, along with the Ninth Circuit’s five-factor test for applying the doctrine, and affirmed the dismissals. Id. at 805-07. The five factors which must be met in each case are: (1) the false statement must not have been made in pursuit of a claim to a privilege or a claim against the government; (2) it must have been made in response to inquiries initiated by a federal agency or department; (3) it must not have perverted the basic functions entrusted by law to the agency; (4) it must have been made in the context of an investigation rather than in the routine exercise of administrative responsibility; and (5) it must have been made in a situation in which a truthful answer would have incriminated the declarant. Id. at 805-06.

Although defendant Raether relies heavily upon the Taylor decision, the legal underpinnings of that case have been seriously weakened by subsequent legal developments. Most importantly, in May 1995, the Supreme Court held that § 1001 does not apply to [1487]*1487false statements made during a bankruptcy court hearing, and expressly overruled its previous case of United States v. Bramblett, 348 U.S. 503, 504, 75 S.Ct. 504, 505, 99 L.Ed. 594 (1955). Hubbard v. United States, — U.S. —, —, 115 S.Ct. 1754, 1765, 131 L.Ed.2d 779 (1995). The Eighth Circuit relied upon Bramblett in its Taylor decision. Thus, it appears that Taylor was overruled sub silentio because the Supreme Court has now rejected the Eighth Circuit’s view that § 1001, and its associated “exculpatory no” exception, apply in the context of a bankruptcy proceeding.

Similarly, other authorities cited in the opinion have been vacated, overruled, or weakened. Taylor relies heavily upon a line of Fifth Circuit cases applying the “exculpatory no” exception in § 1001 prosecutions, starting with the leading case of Paternostro v. United States, 311 F.2d 298 (5th Cir.1962). Taylor, 907 F.2d at 804. In early 1994, however, the Fifth Circuit, sitting en banc, discarded the “exculpatory no” exception to § 1001 as the law of that circuit because the exception cannot be found in the plain language of § 1001. United States v. Rodriguez-Rios, 14 F.3d 1040, 1045 (5th Cir.1994) (en banc). Very recently, the Second Circuit, following the reasoning of the Fifth Circuit, explicitly rejected the “exculpatory no” doctrine as a defense to a false statement charge under § 1001. United States v. Wiener, 96 F.3d 35 (2d Cir.1996).

The Taylor opinion also relied upon a Sixth Circuit case, United States v. Steele, 896 F.2d 998, 1001 (6th Cir.1990). The Sixth Circuit, however, vacated that panel opinion and granted rehearing en banc on July 1, 1990, three days before the Taylor decision was issued. On rehearing, the Sixth Circuit declined to apply the “exculpatory no” doctrine to the facts of the case and found it unnecessary to decide whether the doctrine is viable in other circumstances. United States v. Steele, 933 F.2d 1313, 1315 (6th Cir.) (en banc), cert. denied, 502 U.S. 909, 112 S.Ct. 303, 116 L.Ed.2d 246 (1991). The en banc Sixth Circuit criticized the Ninth Circuit’s five-factor test and declined to adopt it, noting that at least one panel within the Ninth Circuit has also questioned the usefulness of the test. Id. at 1320-21. Finally, Taylor cited United States v. Chevoor, 526 F.2d 178, 184 (1st Cir.1975), cert. denied, 425 U.S. 935, 96 S.Ct. 1665, 48 L.Ed.2d 176 (1976), in which the First Circuit held that a defendant’s denials to an FBI investigator were not “statements” for the purpose of applying the statute. At least one district court has suggested that the Supreme Court overruled Chevoor sub silentio when it held in United States v. Rodgers, 466 U.S. 475, 104 S.Ct.

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Related

United States v. Rodriguez-Rios
14 F.3d 1040 (Fifth Circuit, 1994)
United States v. Bramblett
348 U.S. 503 (Supreme Court, 1955)
Bryson v. United States
396 U.S. 64 (Supreme Court, 1969)
United States v. Knox
396 U.S. 77 (Supreme Court, 1969)
United States v. Rodgers
466 U.S. 475 (Supreme Court, 1984)
Hubbard v. United States
514 U.S. 695 (Supreme Court, 1995)
Eldred J. Paternostro v. United States
311 F.2d 298 (Fifth Circuit, 1962)
United States v. Robert Chevoor
526 F.2d 178 (First Circuit, 1976)
United States v. Robert L. Steele
896 F.2d 998 (Sixth Circuit, 1990)
United States v. Felix Taylor
907 F.2d 801 (Eighth Circuit, 1990)
United States v. Robert L. Steele
933 F.2d 1313 (Sixth Circuit, 1991)
United States v. Oakar
924 F. Supp. 232 (District of Columbia, 1996)
United States v. Caputo
633 F. Supp. 1479 (E.D. Pennsylvania, 1986)
United States v. Wiener
96 F.3d 35 (Second Circuit, 1996)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
940 F. Supp. 1485, 1996 WL 585919, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-raether-sdd-1996.