USA v. Jackson

Decision Date03 April 2000
Docket NumberNo. 99-2223,99-2223
Citation208 F.3d 633
Parties(7th Cir. 2000) UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. ANGELA L. JACKSON, Defendant-Appellant
CourtU.S. Court of Appeals — Seventh Circuit

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, Eastern Division.

No. 97 CR 643--Charles R. Norgle, Sr., Judge.

Before BAUER, CUDAHY, and EVANS, Circuit Judges.

EVANS, Circuit Judge.

This case is about a tragic waste of talent. Angela Jackson probably would be sitting in a comfortable law firm today- -instead of doing time in a federal penitentiary- -if she had devoted as much energy to her legal studies as she did trying to rip off the United Parcel Service in a bizarre and elaborate scheme that included sending hate mail to a number of prominent African-Americans. Her activities led to a bevy of federal charges, and a jury found her guilty on every count in the indictment. Today, her appeal is up for consideration.

In 1996-1997 Jackson (a young African-American woman) was enrolled at the William Mitchell College of Law in St. Paul, Minnesota. She previously lived in Chicago for several years while working and attending the Chicago-Kent law school. In the fall of 1996 Jackson and a friend incorporated a business that planned to sell prints and paintings depicting African-American culture. She purchased several prints from Chicago artist Bayo Iribhogbe for a total of $2,000. She then sent Iribhogbe four United Parcel Service mailers preaddressed to her St. Paul address and on which she had written in bold letters "Kwanzaa," an African-American holiday. Iribhogbe packed his artwork in the mailers and sent them off.

UPS delivered the packages to Jackson's St. Paul apartment building on December 4, 1996. The UPS driver, the apartment building's receptionist, and the apartment building's concierge who handed the packages directly to Jackson all testified that there were four packages and that none were damaged or defaced. Jackson, however, reported to UPS that she had received only three packages and that all were damaged and contained racial epithets. Though she had paid only $2,000 for the artwork, though her company had received no orders for the art, and though Iribhogbe never previously sold a single print for more than $15, Jackson filed a $572,000 claim with UPS. When UPS balked, Jackson faxed letters to various African-American officials, claiming that "racist elements" within UPS were responsible for defacing her packages and for refusing to compensate her.

That evidence alone might well have been enough to convict Jackson of the fraud charges that were ultimately filed against her, but there was much more. Much more. On December 3, 1996, a search of federal cases and statutes for the words "united," "parcel," "service," "damaged," and "packages" in the same paragraph was done on the LEXIS-NEXIS research service on Jackson's computer under the LEXIS password of Jacqueline Whittmon. Whittmon testified that when she worked in the Chicago-Kent law library she gave Jackson her password, that she never used her LEXIS password after leaving her position at Chicago- Kent in the spring of 1996, that Jackson called her from Minnesota in the fall of that year to ask if her LEXIS password still was activated, and that she never gave her password to anyone else. Also gleaned from Jackson's computer was evidence that it was used in November of 1996 to search the Internet for "white supremacy" organizations and to visit the web sites for the "Euro-American Student Union" and the "Storm Front," two such groups.

On November 25, 1996, seven letter packs were placed in a UPS mailing box in Chicago that were addressed to three African-American members of Congress, two African-American newspapers in Washington, D.C., the NAACP, and the Rainbow Coalition. The Euro-American Student Union's address was listed as the return address. The packages never were delivered because the UPS driver noticed racial slurs on the outside of the items and turned them over to his supervisor. UPS opened the packages and inside found racially offensive materials under the UPS logo. On that day, Jackson made a withdrawal from an ATM machine located next to the UPS drop box. A piece of paper with the UPS billing identification number for these packages later was found in Jackson's apartment and Jackson initially gave that number when she called UPS in December to complain about her allegedly defaced packages.

On December 22, 1996, letter packs were dropped in a UPS mailing box in Chicago addressed to 14 African-American individuals, including the Reverend Al Sharpton, NAACP president Kweisi Mfume, the Reverend Jesse Jackson, Representative Jesse Jackson, Jr., Representative Bobby Rush, other members of Congress, former Department of Justice Civil Rights Division head Deval Patrick, New York state comptroller H. Carl McCall, and the defendant herself. These packages also contained racial epithets under the UPS logo. Seven of the packages listed Storm Front as the sender. Jackson had flown into Chicago that day and had rented a car during a layover at the airport. Although Jackson did not receive her package until January 6, 1997, she called Rush's office on December 30, 1996, to report that she had received hate mail from Storm Front.

On January 3, 1997, McCall received another package--sent under the same UPS account number as the December 22 mailings--that contained racial slurs and prompted McCall's wife to summon the New York Police Department bomb squad. On March 31, 1997, seven more packages with racially offensive materials under the UPS logo were dropped at a Chicago UPS drop box and were sent to the artist Iribhogbe, two government offices, and four African-American members of the House of Representatives.

Records and testimony at trial also indicated that Jackson enrolled a UPS employee in the National Rifle Association, sent Confederate flags to a UPS employee, and placed telephone calls, telegrams, and ordered merchandise that attempted to connect UPS employees to white hate groups.

In June 1998 the government filed a motion alleging that Jackson had created false email correspondence on May 20, 1998, that attempted to frame David Stennett, the head of the Euro- American Student Union, for the hate mail. Evidence at the trial showed that Jackson subsequently tried to create an alibi by altering and falsifying records to make it appear that she was being treated at Meharry Medical Clinic in Tennessee on May 20, 1998, when she actually was treated there on other dates.

Before any of these events, Jackson was arrested for battery in June 1996 by Chicago Police Sergeant Bernadette Heelan. After the arrest and before her court date, Jackson used her credit card to order bottles of wine, Playgirl magazine, and sex toys that were delivered to Heelan's home. Jackson then filed a complaint with the Internal Affairs Division of the Chicago Police Department accusing Heelan of stealing her credit card number during the arrest and using it to make these unauthorized purchases. A piece of paper found in Jackson's apartment contained Heelan's name and address, the telephone numbers of the wine companies, and the words "Sex Devices."

The guilty verdicts against Jackson were returned on five counts of mail fraud, four counts of wire fraud, and one count of obstruction of justice. The presiding judge, Charles R. Norgle, Sr., sentenced her to 60 months in prison on the fraud charges and concurrently to 65 months in prison on the obstruction of justice charge. Jackson appeals her conviction on the eight fraud counts involving UPS on the grounds that Judge Norgle excluded admissible evidence, and she appeals her conviction on the one fraud count...

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