U.S. v. Grossi, 97-2723
| Decision Date | 29 May 1998 |
| Docket Number | No. 97-2723,97-2723 |
| Citation | 143 F.3d 348 |
| Parties | UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Robert A. GROSSI, Defendant-Appellant. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Seventh Circuit |
Marsha A. McClellan (argued), Office of the United States Attorney, Chicago, IL, for Plaintiff-Appellee.
Jeffrey B. Steinback (argued), Northbrook, IL, for Defendant-Appellant.
Before FLAUM, EASTERBROOK, and RIPPLE, Circuit Judges.
When he was supervisor of Bloom Township in Illinois between 1981 and 1996, Robert Grossi demanded and received bribes. After a bench trial he was convicted of violating several federal statutes and sentenced to 48 months' imprisonment. A description of one scheme among many illuminates the issues in his appeal.
Russell Guzzo, a chiropractor, remarked to Grossi that many of his clients did not pay, to which Grossi replied that the Township could handle the bills out of its general assistance program. At a later meeting Grossi told Guzzo that, in exchange for 25% of the proceeds, Grossi would approve payment of any overdue bills Guzzo submitted. The general assistance program is a welfare program of last resort, for persons who have slipped through the cracks of other welfare programs. It operates without fixed criteria; the supervisor is entitled to authorize distributions when the need seems urgent. The Township has a staff of welfare caseworkers, but Grossi was entitled to bypass them. Grossi did not tell Guzzo that the patients had to be indigent and other sources of payment unavailable; it was enough that the bills be unpaid. Guzzo and his partner Philip Piscopo went to town, submitting not only overdue bills (some as much as six years old) from residents of the Township but also unpaid bills from patients who lived elsewhere and were not eligible for the Township's general assistance program. To increase their take, they doctored many of the bills, adding charges for services never rendered. Grossi promptly approved full payment. Guzzo and Piscopo received checks totaling $23,500 and paid Grossi his cut in cash.
Guzzo and Piscopo testified to this arrangement. Grossi asked the judge not to believe them. They submitted bogus bills to a welfare fund, cheating the Township's most needy residents; they lied to the FBI when asked about the subject and would not testify without immunity; they evaded income taxes on some of their receipts from the general assistance program; and the defense sought to persuade the judge that among the chiropractors' other sins was perjury about their relations with Grossi. The district judge allowed that he would not have found Guzzo's testimony, if uncorroborated, sufficient to show guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. But, the judge added, Guzzo's testimony was corroborated by Piscopo and by the facts that the bills were paid swiftly (unusual for a public agency) and without the documentation usually entailed. The judge wrote: "[T]here is no conceivable explanation for the miraculous payment of $23,000 or more in old bills for patients not qualified to receive general assistance unless Mr. Grossi was the wizard behind the curtain." Grossi wants us to treat the district judge's skepticism about the chiropractors' testimony as equivalent to disbelief, and to ask whether the corroborating circumstances prove bribery. But this is not how the district judge approached the issue. In the end, he believed Guzzo and Piscopo, not because they are upstanding citizens but because their tale rang true. That was his prerogative as trier of fact. The evidence in support of this criminal episode--and the others narrated by the district judge--was adequate and to spare.
Grossi sought a new trial, providing the district judge with additional evidence of the chiropractors' low ethical standards. Piscopo may have lied about an IRS investigation; the chiropractors did not deposit checks from the general assistance fund into the partnership's main bank account; the chiropractors have not made restitution of the funds they obtained illicitly. Ordinarily a motion for a new trial requires the district judge to make an estimate about how the newly discovered evidence would have affected the jury. But after a bench trial estimation is unnecessary. Judge Plunkett held a hearing, received the evidence, and revealed exactly how it affects the trier of fact: not at all. That conclusion is no more open to question than are the judge's basic findings of fact, and we therefore hold that the court did not abuse its discretion in denying the post-trial motion. See United States v. Fruth, 36 F.3d 649, 651-52 (7th Cir.1994).
Only two legal issues require discussion. Both concern Grossi's conviction under 18 U.S.C. § 666, which provides in part:
(a) Whoever, if the circumstance described in subsection (b) of this section exists--(1) being an agent of an organization, or of a State, local, or Indian tribal government, or any agency thereof--(A) embezzles, steals, obtains by fraud, or otherwise without authority knowingly converts to the use of any person other than the rightful owner or intentionally misapplies, property that--(i) is valued at $5,000 or more, and (ii) is owned by, or is under the care, custody, or control of such organization, government, or agency; or (B) corruptly solicits or demands for the benefit of any person, or accepts or agrees to accept, anything of value from any person, intending to be influenced or rewarded in connection with any business, transaction, or series of transactions of such organization, government, or agency involving any thing of value of $5,000 or more; or (2) corruptly gives, offers, or agrees to give anything of value to any person, with intent to influence or reward an agent of an organization or of a State,...
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