United States v. Whaley

860 F. Supp. 2d 584, 2012 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 36649, 2012 WL 928131
CourtDistrict Court, E.D. Tennessee
DecidedMarch 19, 2012
DocketNo. 3:10-CR-169
StatusPublished
Cited by7 cases

This text of 860 F. Supp. 2d 584 (United States v. Whaley) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, E.D. Tennessee primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
United States v. Whaley, 860 F. Supp. 2d 584, 2012 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 36649, 2012 WL 928131 (E.D. Tenn. 2012).

Opinion

MEMORANDUM AND ORDER

C. CLIFFORD SHIRLEY, JR., United States Magistrate Judge.

All pretrial motions in this case have been referred to the undersigned pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 636(b) for disposition or report and recommendation regarding disposition by the District Court as may be appropriate. This case is before the Court on the Defendants’ Motion to Exclude Testimony of Government’s Disclosed Witnesses Kimberly Blankenship and Ronalda Owens [Doc. 75],1 filed on September 9, 2011. The Government filed a response [Doc. 77] on October 3, 2011, to which the Defendants replied [Doc. 78] on October 11, 2011. The parties appeared for a hearing on the motion on November 2, 2012. Assistant United States Attorney F.M. Hamilton, III, appeared on behalf of the Government. Attorneys W. Thomas Dillard, Wade V. Davies, and Brian Wanamaker represented Defendant Kerley, and Attorney Tracy Jackson Smith represented Defendant Jeffrey Whaley. Both Defendants were also present. At the conclusion of the hearing, the Court took the matter under advisement.

[586]*586I. BACKGROUND

The Defendants are charged in a Fifth Superseding Indictment [Doc. 80] with conspiracy to commit wire fraud and bank fraud (Count 1), eight counts of wire fraud (Counts 2-9), eight counts of bank fraud (Counts 10-17), two counts of making a false statement to influence a financial institution (Counts 18-19), and one count of money laundering (Count 22). Defendant Whaley is charged with two additional counts of money laundering (Counts 20-21). The charges are based on an alleged plan by the Defendants to profit from the sale of eight properties in Sevier County, Tennessee. The Defendants are alleged to have obtained “straw borrowers,” who agreed to purchase the properties and to apply for mortgage loans to get the funds to purchase the properties and who were told that they would not have to make a down payment or mortgage payment on the properties. The Indictment alleges that the Defendants made material false representations and omissions, including concealing that the down payments for the properties did not come from the straw borrowers, on loan documents to Citizens Bank and SunTrust Mortgage to induce these entities to lend mortgage proceeds to the straw borrowers. Citizens Bank, an FDIC insured bank, and SunTrust Mortgage, from its account at SunTrust Bank, an FDIC insured bank, wired mortgage proceeds to Guaranty Land Title, the closing agency owned by Defendant Kerley.

On August 5, 2011, the Government filed a Disclosure of Testimony of Kimberly Blankenship [Doc. 66] and a Disclosure of Testimony of Ronalda Owens [Doc. 67]. The disclosure relating to Ms. Blankenship, states that she is the First Vice President of Consumer Banking Operational Risk and the Compliance Manager for Quality Control Mortgage at SunTrust Mortgage and will testify as a fact witness at trial. Although the disclosure states that Ms. Blankenship will not provide expert testimony, the Government contends that it is providing the disclosure by the deadline set for expert witnesses out of an abundance of caution. The disclosure relates Ms. Blankenship’s professional experience and a summary of her anticipated testimony regarding whether SunTrust Mortgage would have approved the underwriting and funded certain loans for the eight properties involved in this case. The disclosure relating to Ms. Owens also states that she will testify as a fact witness, rather than an expert, at trial but that the Government likewise discloses her testimony out of an abundance of caution. Ms. Owens is the Senior Vice President of Lending at Citizens Bank. Ms. Owens’ disclosure briefly summarizes her professional experience and summarizes her anticipated testimony on whether Citizens Bank would have approved and funded certain loans for two of the properties involved in this case.

II. POSITIONS OF THE PARTIES

The Defendants argue that the proposed testimony of Ms. Blankenship and Ms. Owens does not qualify as proper lay witness opinion under Rule 701 of the Federal Rules of Evidence. They argue that (1) neither witness was involved in approving the loans in question and, thus, cannot testify about her own perceptions, (2) both witnesses will testify to after-the-fact investigations of the loans, and (3) the proposed testimony is based upon the witnesses’ specialized knowledge. Alternatively, the Defendants contend that the proposed testimony does not meet the requirements for expert testimony under Federal Rule of Evidence 702 and that the expert testimony of Ms. Blankenship and Ms. Owens is inadmissible because the disclosures provided by the Government are insufficient to comply with Rule 16(a)(1)(G), of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure. Finally, the Defendants argue that the Court should conduct an [587]*587evidentiary hearing to determine what testimony by Ms. Blankenship and Ms. Owens, if any, is admissible under Rules 701 and 702.

The Government responds that the proposed testimony of Ms. Blankenship and Ms. Owens properly qualifies as lay witness opinion under Rule 701. The Government contends that Ms. Blankenship and Ms. Owens are employees of their respective banks testifying about their investigation of the impact of material misrepresentations in loan documents on their employers’ business. Accordingly, the Government asserts that Ms. Blankenship and Ms. Owens will testify to fact or admissible lay opinion. The Government also argues that if Ms. Blankenship and Ms. Owens are deemed to be experts under Rule 702, then it has made the proper expert disclosures. Finally, the Government contends that if the Court finds its expert disclosures to be insufficient, the remedy is to order it to supplement its disclosures, rather than to deny admission of the testimony.

III. ANALYSIS

The Defendants challenge the admissibility of the testimony of two Government witnesses, contending that the proposed testimony does not qualify as lay opinion under Rule 701. They also argue that the proposed testimony does not qualify as expert opinion under Rule 702 and that, even if the testimony can properly be characterized as expert opinion, it has not been properly disclosed. As a result, the Defendants ask the Court to exclude the testimony of Ms. Blankenship and Ms. Owens at trial. After examining the arguments and the case law, the Court finds that Ms. Blankenship and Ms. Owens may testify to the facts surrounding their investigation of the approval of the loans at issue in this case and to their lay opinion, resulting from their investigation and their knowledge of their employers’ lending policies, as to whether their employer banks would have approved the loans if the true nature of the down payments had been known. Because the Court finds that their testimony is admissible under Rule 701, there is no need to determine whether Ms. Blankenship’s and Ms. Owens’ testimony is also admissible under Rule 702 or whether it has been properly disclosed.

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Bluebook (online)
860 F. Supp. 2d 584, 2012 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 36649, 2012 WL 928131, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-whaley-tned-2012.