United States v. White

• Decision Date: 01 March 2012
• Docket Number: Nos. 10–4241,10–4597.,10–4452,s. 10–4241
• Parties: UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff–Appellant, v. William A. WHITE, Defendant–Appellee, v. University of Delaware; South Harrison Township (NJ) Police Department, Movants.American Civil Liberties Union of Virginia, Incorporated, Amicus Supporting Appellee.United States of America, Plaintiff–Appellee, v. William A. White, Defendant–Appellant, v. University of Delaware; South Harrison Township (NJ) Police Department, Movants.American Civil Liberties Union of Virginia, Incorporated, Amicus Supporting Appellant.United States of America, Plaintiff–Appellant, v. William A. White, Defendant–Appellee, v. University of Delaware; South Harrison Township (NJ) Police Department, Movants.American Civil Liberties Union of Virginia, Incorporated, Amicus Supporting Appellee.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Fourth Circuit

670 F.3d 498

UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff–Appellant,

v.William A. WHITE, Defendant–Appellee,

v.University of Delaware; South Harrison Township (NJ) Police Department, Movants.American Civil Liberties Union of Virginia, Incorporated, Amicus Supporting Appellee.United States of America, Plaintiff–Appellee,

v.William A. White, Defendant–Appellant,

v.University of Delaware; South Harrison Township (NJ) Police Department, Movants.American Civil Liberties Union of Virginia, Incorporated, Amicus Supporting Appellant.United States of America, Plaintiff–Appellant,

v.William A. White, Defendant–Appellee,

v.University of Delaware; South Harrison Township (NJ) Police Department, Movants.American Civil Liberties Union of Virginia, Incorporated, Amicus Supporting Appellee.

Nos. 10–4241

10–4452

10–4597.

United States Court of Appeals, Fourth Circuit.

Argued: Oct. 28, 2011.Decided: March 1, 2012.

ARGUED: Linda F. Thome, United States Department of Justice, Washington, D.C., for the United States. Melissa Warner Scoggins, Warren & Associates, PLC, Norfolk, Virginia, for William A. White. ON BRIEF: Thomas E. Perez, Assistant Attorney General, Jessica Dunsay Silver, Tovah R. Calderon, United States Department of Justice, Washington, D.C., for the United States. Rebecca K. Glenberg, Gabriel Z. Walters, American Civil Liberties Union of Virginia Foundation, Inc., Richmond, Virginia, for Amicus Supporting William A. White.

Before NIEMEYER, DUNCAN, and FLOYD, Circuit Judges.

Conviction affirmed, sentence vacated, and case remanded for resentencing by published opinion. Judge NIEMEYER wrote the opinion for the court, in which Judge DUNCAN joined and Judge FLOYD joined in part. Judge DUNCAN wrote a separate concurring opinion. Judge FLOYD wrote a separate opinion concurring in part and dissenting in part.

OPINION

NIEMEYER, Circuit Judge:

A jury convicted William White, the “Commander” of the American National Socialist Workers' Party, on four counts (of a seven-count indictment), Counts 1, 3, 5, and 6. The convictions on Counts 1, 5, and 6 were for transmitting in interstate commerce—by email, U.S. Mail, and telephone—threats to injure or intimidate individuals, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 875(c) (prohibiting interstate communications containing threats to injure a person), and the conviction on Count 3 was for violating 18 U.S.C. § 1512(b)(1) (prohibiting the intimidation of individuals to “influence, delay, or prevent the[ir] testimony”).

On White's Rule 29 motion for judgment of acquittal, based on arguments that his communications were political speech protected by the First Amendment and, in any event, the evidence was insufficient to support a finding of guilt, the district court denied the motion as to Counts 1, 3, and 5 and granted it as to Count 6. The court sentenced White to 30 months' imprisonment, rejecting the government's argument for a sentencing enhancement because of the vulnerability of some victims of the crime charged in Count 3.

The government appealed the district court's judgment of acquittal on Count 6 and its refusal to apply the sentencing enhancement for vulnerable victims on Count 3, and White appealed the district court's refusal to grant his Rule 29 motion as to Counts 1, 3, and 5 and to sustain his objection to Count 3 based on constructive amendment of the indictment.

For the reasons that follow, we affirm the district court's rulings on the Rule 29 motions as to all four counts, and we affirm White's convictions on Counts 1, 3, and 5, but we vacate White's sentence and remand for resentencing because the district court applied an incorrect standard in deciding whether to consider an enhancement for victims' vulnerability.

I

William White, the “Commander” of the American National Socialist Workers' Party, which he formed in 2006, conducted activities from his home in Roanoke, Virginia, promoting his neo-Nazi white supremacist views by publishing a white supremacist monthly magazine; by posting articles and comments on his white supremacist website, “Overthrow.com,” as well as on other similar websites, such as Vanguard News Network Forum; and by conducting a radio talk show.

Following his seven-count indictment for threatening individuals and intimidating them, a jury convicted White on four counts and acquitted him on three. The facts proved at trial on the four counts of conviction are as follows:

Count 1: Citibank employee Jennifer Petsche

Following a dispute with Citibank (South Dakota), N.A., over the amount White owed Citibank and how the bank was reporting White's past due amounts to credit agencies, the bank and White reached a settlement agreement by which White agreed to pay the bank $14,000 and the bank agreed to request deletion of adverse credit commentary as reported by the three primary credit reporting agencies.

When, after a couple of weeks, the adverse commentary, referred to as “derogatories,” had not yet been removed, White began calling Citibank repeatedly. He placed approximately 50 calls to Citibank over the period of 24 hours, and eventually left a voicemail for Jennifer Petsche, a litigation specialist at Citibank. In the voicemail, White demanded that Petsche fax to his attorney a copy of the letter that Citibank had sent the credit reporting agencies and said, “I now have your name and direct number so I will not hesitate to call you back should we not receive that in a prompt manner.” Petsche's supervisor advised Petsche not to respond to the voice-mail since both the company and White were represented by counsel.

The next evening, on March 22, 2007, Petsche received another voicemail from White on her home answering machine, informing her that White had sent her an email and instructing her to “review it, respond to it, and send over the necessary information as quickly as possible.” This telephone call frightened Petsche, as she had never before had a customer call her at her home, and she called her husband to determine what time he was coming home. She also called the night supervisor at Citibank to report the call.

The next morning, Petsche found the email sent to several versions of her email address. The email began by listing Petsche's full name, age, birth date, current home address with the word “confirmed” beside it, three of her previous home addresses, her current home telephone number with the word “connected” beside it, and her husband's full name. The email then read:

I understand you think you're very tough and you think that by dragging this process out you have created me a lot of misery; that is an incorrect assessment, but I must admit I have run out of patience with you and your smug attitude. I hope the fact that I've obviously paid someone to find you conveys the seriousness with which I take your current attitude.

If you resolve this issue quickly and efficiently I can guarantee you will not hear from me again; if you don't, well, you will be well known to the Citibank customers you are currently in litigation with in [a] very short amount of time.

Again, make my life easy, fax over the letter, and you will not be hearing from me again.

PS: I took the liberty of buying the [Citicard] corporate phone directory and locating information on your outstanding disputed credit accounts from an internet dealer today, and can probably make you better known to your customers than the security measures you enact at your company indicate you would like. Consider this, as I'm sure, being in the collections business and having the attitude about it that you do, that you often make people upset. Lord knows that drawing too much publicity and making people upset is what did in Joan Lefkow.

After the last paragraph, the email included a hyperlink to a Google search on Joan Lefkow. Petsche clicked the hyperlink and learned that Lefkow was a judge whose husband and mother had been murdered by a disgruntled litigant who had appeared before Judge Lefkow in court.

Petsche took this email “as a direct threat” to herself and her family, and she immediately notified her direct supervisor, the paralegal working with her, and Citibank security. Petsche “went to pieces” and felt as if she was “in a state of shock.” The paralegal broke out in hives and had to go home. Citibank's lead investigator took the email as a threat to Petsche and launched a full investigation. Eventually, when he discovered that White was the leader of a white supremacist organization, he turned the investigation over to the FBI, fearing a violent attack on Citibank employees. Petsche testified at trial that she remained in fear for her safety and the safety of her family for the next three years, taking precautions such as changing her telephone number to an unlisted number.

Count 3: The HUD plaintiffs

In 2007, African–American tenants of a Virginia Beach, Virginia, apartment complex were pursuing a claim of racial housing discrimination against their landlord through the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (“HUD”). The claim had been reported in the media, and the formal complaint, which included the names of the plaintiffs, was available on HUD's website.

In May 2007, White mailed packages to numerous tenants involved in bringing the complaint, most of which were addressed to adult tenants or simply to “Resident.” One package, however, was sent to the address of Tasha Reddick and was addressed to Reddick's two minor children, who were both under the age of nine.

Each of the packages sent to the African–American tenants at the apartment complex included a letter and a copy of a White's neo-Nazi magazine. The letter, which was printed with a letterhead containing a swastika, was addressed to “Whiney Section 8 Nigger” and included the subject line “Re: Your complaint against Henry LLC.” The letter read:

Dear Nigger Tenant:

I read today of your complaint against James Crocket Henry and Henry LLC. I do not know Mr[.] Henry, but I do know your type of slum nigger, and I...