U.S. v. Miller

• Citation: 952 F.2d 866
• Decision Date: 23 January 1992
• Docket Number: No. 90-3512,90-3512
• Parties: UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff-Appellee Cross-Appellant, v. Marsden W. MILLER, Jr., and William C. Huls, Defendants-Appellants Cross-Appellees.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Fifth Circuit

Page 866

952 F.2d 866

UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff-Appellee Cross-Appellant, v. Marsden W. MILLER, Jr., and William C. Huls Defendants-Appellants Cross-Appellees.

No. 90-3512.

United States Court of Appeals Fifth Circuit.

Jan. 23, 1992.

John M. McCollam, Robert B. Wiygul, Gordon, Arata, McCollam & Duplantis, New Orleans, La., William T. D'Zurilla, Francis M. Bouillion, Benjamin B. Blanchet, Lafayette, La., Edward M. Booth, Jacksonville, Fla., for Marsden W. Miller, Jr.

Camille F. Gravel, Jr., Alexandria, La., William H. Jeffress, Jr., Miller, Cassidy, Larroca & Lewin, Washington, D.C., for William C. Huls.

P. Raymond Lamonica, U.S. Atty., Baton Rouge, La., James M. Cole, Deputy Chief, Public Integrity Section, U.S. Dept. of Justice, Washington, D.C., for U.S.

Appeals from the United States District Court for the Middle District of Louisiana.

Before BROWN, KING, and GARWOOD, Circuit Judges.

GARWOOD, Circuit Judge:

Following the reversal by this Court of the mail fraud convictions of defendants-appellants Marsden W. Miller, Jr. (Miller) and William C. Huls (Huls) because the indictment and the jury instructions permitted the jury to convict without finding the deprivation of a property right, the government brought a new indictment. In this pretrial appeal, both Miller and Huls appeal from the district court's order denying their motions to dismiss the indictment on double jeopardy and collateral estoppel grounds. The government cross-appeals from the district court's collateral estoppel ruling to the extent that the district court thereby held that whether a stock sale by Huls to Miller was a sham was decided adversely to the government by acquittals on various counts at the first trial, and therefore may not be relitigated at the second trial.

Facts and Proceedings Below

The facts are drawn from our opinion under the first indictment, United States v. Huls, 841 F.2d 109, 110 (5th Cir.1988):

"William C. Huls, a prominent figure in the Louisiana oil industry, was a founder and principal owner of the Exploration Company of Louisiana (XCL), along with Marsden W. Miller, Jr. In March 1984, the Governor of Louisiana, Edwin Edwards, appointed Huls Secretary of the Louisiana Department of Natural Resources. The post carried with it membership on the Louisiana Mineral Board, which awards oil and gas leases on state lands. Huls asked the Louisiana Ethics Commission for an advisory opinion on his ties to XCL, submitting information that the Government characterized at trial as distorted and incomplete. In May 1984, the Commission issued an advisory opinion recommending that Huls be barred from participating in any Mineral Board decisions in which XCL would have a 'substantial economic interest.' La.Rev.Stat. § 42:1102(21). Huls sold his XCL stock to Miller in June 1984, a transaction that the Government later labeled a sham.

"In July 1984, the Louisiana Mineral Board awarded a lease to drill oil and gas wells on state lands to a company called TIPCO. Although the bid was in TIPCO's name, TIPCO and XCL had formed a fifty-fifty partnership to submit it. Huls recommended to the Board that it grant the lease, and also successfully argued that TIPCO be relieved of the usual well depth and letter of credit requirements.

"At trial the Government presented evidence that throughout this period, Huls continued to collect on an overriding royalty and on working interests in several XCL leases. The Government also showed evidence that XCL had given Huls a Mercedes, paid health insurance premiums, and paid for several airplane trips. Huls had allegedly pledged some of his royalty interests as collateral on an XCL note for over $5,000,000, giving him an interest in XCL's continuing viability. The government also presented evidence that Huls had an agreement to repurchase on demand a large block of the XCL stock he formerly held."

In November 1986, Miller and Huls were indicted on fifteen counts charging mail fraud and conspiracy to commit mail fraud. 18 U.S.C. §§ 2, 371, 1341. The indictment alleged that Huls' sale of his XCL stock to Miller was a sham, that Huls had other financial interests in XCL, that XCL had provided Huls various other benefits while he was in office, and that Huls and Miller conspired to hide these facts from both the Mineral Board and the Louisiana Ethics Commission. The indictment alleged that, despite having ties to XCL that mandated his recusal, Huls participated in the Board's decision to grant the leases to the XCL/TIPCO partnership.

Miller and Huls were convicted on only three and four counts, respectively, of the fifteen counts in the indictment. Miller was convicted on the conspiracy count and the two substantive counts relating to the granting of the leases. Huls was convicted on these same three counts, and also on one of the two substantive counts relating to the Ethics Commission. Both defendants were acquitted on all ten counts relating to the alleged sham stock sale.

While the defendants' appeal to this Court was pending, the Supreme Court decided McNally v. United States, 483 U.S. 350, 107 S.Ct. 2875, 97 L.Ed.2d 292 (1987), which held that mail fraud covers only fraudulent schemes intended to deprive the victim of money or property and rejected lower court decisions that had authorized convictions without proof of such conduct. This Court reversed the defendants' convictions in light of McNally because the indictment and jury instructions did not require the government to prove all the elements of mail fraud. Huls, 841 F.2d at 112. ¹

The government procured a new, six-count indictment, which included two new counts that had not been charged in the first indictment. The district court granted the defendants' motion to dismiss these two new counts for prosecutorial vindictiveness, and the government has not appealed this ruling. Although the phrasing of the indictment has been changed in an attempt to comply with McNally, Miller and Huls now stand indicted again on essentially the same three and four counts, respectively, on which they were convicted at the first trial.

The defendants sought dismissal of the new indictment on double jeopardy and collateral estoppel grounds. The district court struck language from the indictment pertaining to the alleged sham stock sale but otherwise denied the motions. Arguing that retrial is barred on double jeopardy and collateral estoppel grounds, Miller and Huls have perfected this interlocutory appeal. The government has cross-appealed from the district court's order striking the allegations of the sham stock sale from count one of the indictment (the conspiracy count).

Discussion

Miller and Huls contend that reprosecution is barred by the Double Jeopardy Clause. They advance three primary arguments in support of this contention. First, they argue that retrial is barred because the government never presented a valid mail fraud theory at the first trial, in particular in the jury instructions, and was not prevented from doing so by any adverse trial court ruling. Second, they contend the Supreme Court's recent ruling in Grady v. Corbin, 495 U.S. 508, 110 S.Ct. 2084, 109 L.Ed.2d 548 (1990), bars this reprosecution on a new theory not presented at the first trial, although available to the government there. Third, they argue that there was insufficient evidence to support a conviction on a valid mail fraud theory, and thus retrial is barred. Although some of these arguments are not without force, we must reject them under controlling Supreme Court precedent.

In a line of precedent almost a century old, the Supreme Court has repeatedly stressed that the Double Jeopardy Clause does not preclude the government from retrying a defendant whose conviction is set aside because of an error in the proceedings leading to conviction. Montana v. Hall, 481 U.S. 400, 107 S.Ct. 1825, 1826, 95 L.Ed.2d 354 (1987); United States v. Scott, 437 U.S. 82, 98 S.Ct. 2187, 2193-94, 57 L.Ed.2d 65 (1978); United States v. Tateo, 377 U.S. 463, 84 S.Ct. 1587, 1589, 12 L.Ed.2d 448 (1964); United States v. Ball, 163 U.S. 662, 16 S.Ct. 1192, 1195, 41 L.Ed. 300 (1896). As the Court explained in Tateo:

"While different theories have been advanced to support the permissibility of retrial, of greater importance than the conceptual abstractions employed to explain the Ball principle are the implications of that principle for the sound administration of justice. Corresponding to the right of an accused to be given a fair trial is the societal interest in punishing one whose guilt is clear after he has obtained such a trial. It would be a high price indeed for society to pay were every accused granted immunity from punishment because of any defect sufficient to constitute reversible error in the proceedings leading to conviction. From the standpoint of a defendant, it is at least doubtful that appellate courts would be as zealous as they now are in protecting against the effects of improprieties at the trial or pretrial stage if they knew that reversal of a conviction would put the accused irrevocably beyond the reach of further prosecution." 84 S.Ct. at 1589.

The defendants fault the government for failing to present a valid (property rights) theory of mail fraud at the first trial. They further note that the government gained certain strategic advantages, including the exclusion of certain evidence favorable to the defendants, by not pursuing such a theory. Relying on cases such as Davis v. Herring, 800 F.2d 513 (5th Cir.1986), they argue that double jeopardy principles bar reprosecution of a defendant on "charges that, through errors of law or strategy, are not ultimately presented to the jury." Id. at 519; see also Grady v. Corbin, 495 U.S. 508, 110 S.Ct. 2084, 109 L.Ed.2d 548 (1990). Both Davis and Grady involved separate charges in a successive prosecution, however, and this case does not. The government brings its charges under the very same criminal stat...