U.S. v. Langston

Decision Date22 December 2009
Docket NumberNo. 08-16356.,08-16356.
Citation590 F.3d 1226
PartiesUNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. William Luther LANGSTON, Defendant-Appellant.
CourtU.S. Court of Appeals — Eleventh Circuit

Jeffrey M. Anderson, Ramona C. Albon, Michael Boysie Billingsley, Birmingham, AL, for Plaintiff-Appellee.

Anthony Aaron Joseph, James L. Mitchell, Donald F. Winningham, III, Maynard Cooper & Gale, PC, Birmingham, AL, for Defendant-Appellant.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Northern District of Alabama.

Before DUBINA, Chief Judge, and BIRCH and SILER,* Circuit Judges.

DUBINA, Chief Judge:

Once again, our circuit is presented with an appeal involving an Alabama official and his part in a massive case of public corruption. The facts of this case should be an affront to every decent law-abiding citizen in the State of Alabama. A federal jury found William Luther Langston, former Executive Director of the Alabama Fire College, guilty on 36 counts of mail fraud, wire fraud, theft of federal funds, conspiracy, money laundering, and conduct giving rise to criminal forfeiture. Following the convictions, the district court sentenced Langston to 125 months' imprisonment plus three years of supervised release and ordered him to pay $1,428,945.40 in restitution. On appeal, Langston challenges his convictions and final sentence.

After a thorough review of the record, we are compelled to vacate his convictions on Counts 5-12, 21-22, 25-27, 30-32, and 36. On these counts, the Government erroneously indicted Langston as an agent of the State of Alabama under 18 U.S.C. § 666, instead of an agent of the Alabama Fire College. The record demonstrates that the Government failed to produce sufficient evidence to prove that Langston was a state agent as it pertained to these specified counts. However, we conclude sufficient evidence exists in the record to support the remaining counts of conviction, including the § 666 counts in the indictment that charged Langston as an agent of the Alabama Poison Control Center, (Counts 13-19), and charged him as an agent of both the state and the Alabama Poison Control Center, (Counts 33-34).

I. FACTS
The Agencies

Prior to 1955, the Alabama Department of Education coordinated fire fighter training in Alabama. In that year, the Alabama Legislature created the Alabama Fire College ("Fire College"), which the Alabama Board of Education later affiliated with Shelton State Community College in Tuscaloosa. In 1988, the Legislature merged the Fire College with another agency known as the Alabama Fire Fighters Personnel Standards and Education Commission ("Fire College Commission"). See Ala.Code § 36-32-2 (2001). The Fire College Commission is comprised of the State Fire Marshal, four gubernatorial appointees, and two representatives of fire fighters' associations. Id. The mission of both the Fire College and the Fire College Commission is to provide training and certification for the state's fire fighters and emergency medical technicians located within the state. The Fire College is authorized to hire an Executive Director, and the Alabama Fire Fighters' Personnel Standards and Education Fund within the State Treasury provides the funding for both agencies. Id. § 36-32-9. The Executive Director works at the sole discretion of the Fire College Commission. Id. § 36-32-3 ("The commission may employ an executive director who shall serve at the discretion of the commission.").

Langston served as Executive Director of the Fire College from 1988 to 2006, and during that same period, served as Chairman of the Fire College Foundation, a non-profit entity formed by Langston and others to support the Fire College by providing scholarship support for emergency medical service students. Langston's employment contracts were with the Fire College Commission, and his paychecks and W-2s came from the Fire College Commission. Langston was paid according to a State Board of Education salary schedule, and he received State employment benefits, such as insurance, leave, and retirement. As Executive Director, Langston was responsible for all operations of the Fire College: he hired, terminated, and reassigned Fire College employees, managed and directed the funds of the Fire College, and entered into contracts on behalf of the Fire College.

The Alabama Poison Control Center ("Poison Center"), a non-profit center that provides educational information regarding poisonings in Alabama, operates as a division of the Fire College. The Poison Center received more than $100,000 of federal funds from the United States Department of Health and Human Services each year from 2001 through 2006. Dr. John Fisher, Director of the Poison Center, testified that he and his employees are state employees, but his employment contract was with the Fire College and the Fire College Commission. Dr. Fisher reported directly to Langston, his "boss." [R. Vol. II, Doc. 115, p. 249, 254.] Dr. Fisher stated that Langston indicated to him that the Poison Center should make regular contributions to the Fire College Foundation to compensate for shortfalls in the budget. Dr. Fisher testified that the Poison Center paid $50,000 to the Fire College and $30,000 to the Fire College Foundation each year through periodic payments. In total, the Poison Center gave over $500,000 to the Fire College and the Fire College Foundation, at the direction of Langston. [Id. at 243-59.] Dr. Fisher also testified that Langston asked him to write a consultation agreement between Dr. Fisher and Robert Nix, Deputy Director of the Fire College, to pay Nix $20,000 for work for the Poison Center. Nix did no substantive work for the Poison Center. [Id. at 260.]

Langston diverted Fire College funds to himself, family, and friends

In 2001 and 2002, Langston gave $3,000 raises to five part-time Fire College employees in return for their $1,000 contribution to the "coffee fund," which was Langston's personal fund. [R. Vol. IV, Doc. 117, p. 12-79.] Unlike the employee's political contributions through their local fire departments, with these contributions, there were no consent forms, payroll deductions, or reports.

In 2002, the Shelton State Community College Foundation ("Shelton State Foundation") decided to build a house for Shelton State Community College President, Rick Rogers, in the Woodbank subdivision near the college. The builder's cost estimate for the house—$504,000—was higher than the amount that Shelton State Foundation agreed to spend, so Rogers and Langston agreed that Shelton State Community College and the Fire College would contribute the difference out of their respective budgets. Langston then spent about $99,000 of Fire College funds to pay contractors building the Woodbank house. To conceal this misuse of funds, Langston ordered all requisitions and purchase orders relating to the Woodbank house to be sent directly to him, bypassing the usual channels. Langston also directed James Levert, the Fire College's maintenance manager, to arrange with a sub-contractor, Dennis Sudduth Services, Inc. (a Fire College contractor), to accept payments from the Fire College and transfer those payments to another construction company (not a Fire College contractor) who was working on the house. [R. Vol. IV, Doc. 117, p. 79-134.] Langston and Rogers also arranged for Fire College and Shelton State Community College employees to work on the Woodbank house during business hours. [Id. at 134-177.]

Langston and Roy Johnson arranged bogus jobs for their family members

Roy Johnson, former Chancellor of Post-Secondary Education and former state legislator, testified that he and Langston "agreed to look after each other's children." [R. Vol. V., Doc. 118, p. 13.] Under this agreement, Langston offered Johnson's daughter employment as a curriculum specialist at the Fire College, for which little or no work was expected. [Id. at 22.] In return, Johnson gave Langston's daughter-in-law, Kelly, a job at Southern Union Community College and later at Wallace Community College. She did no meaningful work, but the State paid her $18,000 from 1998 through 1999. After this contract expired, Langston asked Johnson to find Kelly another job, which he did, and she received another $18,000 for bogus employment. In addition, Johnson arranged for Gadsden State Community College to award Langston's son, Bo, consulting contracts valued at $66,000.

Langston diverted funds to Robert Nix

In 1996, Robert Nix retired from his full-time position at the Fire College and began receiving limited state retirement benefits. Langston lobbied Johnson to find a job for Nix in the two-year college system that did not require any work. Johnson referred Nix to Winston Hayes, owner of the Access Group, a computer software company that conducted business with the Department of Post-Secondary Education and the Fire College. Langston executed a contract obligating the Fire College to pay Access Group $3,000 per month for computer consultation. [R. Vol. III, Doc. 116, p. 138-42.] Access Group executed a consulting agreement with Nix to pay him $2,500 per month for computer consultation to support Access Group in its bogus work for the Fire College. Nix did no work for Access Group, and Access Group did no work for the Fire College. [Id. at 142-44.] Through this scheme, Langston diverted $92,500 of Fire College funds to Nix.

Langston also diverted funds from the Poison Center to Nix by directing Dr. Fisher to put Nix on his payroll as a consultant. Nix testified that he did no work for the Poison Center, [R. Vol. I, Doc. 114, p. 104.], but Dr. Fisher recalled that Nix once repaired a leaky toilet. [R. Vol. II, Doc. 115, p. 260-61.] From 1998 to 2004, Langston directed the diversion of $126,500 of Poison Center funds to Nix.

Langston diverted funds to the Fire College Foundation

The Alabama Board of Education Trust Fund, via the Fire College Commission, provided annual appropriation of funds to...

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