US v. Sawyer, Crim. A. No. 94-10168-NMG.
| Decision Date | 08 February 1995 |
| Docket Number | Crim. A. No. 94-10168-NMG. |
| Citation | 878 F. Supp. 279 |
| Parties | UNITED STATES of America, v. F. William SAWYER. |
| Court | U.S. District Court — District of Massachusetts |
COPYRIGHT MATERIAL OMITTED
Thomas R. Kiley, Cosgrove, Eisenberg & Kiley, Boston, MA, for F. William Sawyer.
Robert L. Ullman, U.S. Attorney's Office Crim. Deputy Associate U.S. Atty., Boston, MA, for U.S.
On July 7, 1994, a federal grand jury returned an indictment against the defendant, F. William Sawyer ("Sawyer"), charging him with fifteen counts of mail fraud, nine counts of wire fraud, eight counts of interstate travel with intent to commit bribery and one count of conspiracy. Pending before the Court are the following motions of the defendant:
The Court will address the motions in the order in which they were filed.
At all times relevant to the Indictment, Sawyer was a Vice-President of John Hancock Mutual Life Insurance Company, Inc. ("Hancock"). According to the Indictment, Sawyer was the chief lobbyist for Hancock in all matters coming before the Massachusetts Legislature and was a registered "legislative agent" under Massachusetts law. The Indictment further alleges that, because Hancock is chartered and headquartered in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, the laws thereof, especially those pertaining to insurance regulation, are more important to Hancock than the laws of any other jurisdiction.
The Indictment charges Sawyer with devising a scheme to defraud the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and its citizens of their intangible right to the honest services of members of the Massachusetts Legislature, in violation of 18 U.S.C. §§ 1341 and 1343. As part of that scheme, Sawyer allegedly offered and gave to more than 25 Massachusetts legislators travel expenses, lodging, and free golf, meals and other entertainment worth more than $30,000, in violation of the laws of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.
The Indictment further alleges that Sawyer's conduct violated the Travel Act, 18 U.S.C. § 1952, to wit, traveling and causing others to travel in interstate commerce with the intent to commit bribery in violation of M.G.L. c. 268A, § 3, the Massachusetts unlawful gratuities statute.
Finally, the Indictment charges Sawyer with engaging in a conspiracy with his supervisor at Hancock, Raeburn Hathaway ("Hathaway"). Allegedly, Sawyer and Hathaway conspired to commit the Mail Fraud, Wire Fraud and Travel Act violations described above.
Sawyer has moved to dismiss all counts of the Indictment predicated on alleged violations of the Massachusetts "gift" laws and rules, M.G.L. c. 268B, §§ 5-7, M.G.L. c. 3, § 43, and House Rule 16A(12). No count in the Indictment is based entirely on any one or all of those statutes. Sawyer, therefore, actually seeks to dismiss only certain selective paragraphs of the Indictment.
The government charges Sawyer with devising a scheme to deprive the public of the honest services of Massachusetts legislators. As part of that scheme, Sawyer allegedly violated Massachusetts statutes (M.G.L. c. 268B, § 6 and M.G.L. c. 3, § 43) and House of Representatives Rule 16A(12) that restrict the amount of "gifts" that a legislative agent may offer or give to public officials.
Sawyer argues that expenditures by legislative agents for meals, beverages and other "social hospitality" are not "gifts" as that term is meant to be interpreted under M.G.L. c. 268B, § 6, M.G.L. c. 3, § 43 and House Rule 16A(12). For authority, Sawyer cites legislative history, which, he claims, distinguishes meals and what he calls "shared hospitality" from "gifts." Sawyer also relies on the fact that the State Ethics Commission had never extended the definition of "gifts" to include "shared hospitality."
It is beyond dispute that statutory interpretation begins with the actual text of the statute. See Gately v. Commonwealth of Massachusetts, 2 F.3d 1221, 1228 (1st Cir. 1993); Weitzel v. Travelers Ins. Co., 417 Mass. 149, 153, 627 N.E.2d 926, 928 (1994). When a statute's meaning is clear, the courts must enforce that statute according to its plain meaning. See Gately, 2 F.3d at 1228 (). A court should look to legislative history only when the statutory language is unclear and the legislative history is unambiguous and useful in interpreting the legislative intent underlying the statute in question. See United States v. Turkette, 452 U.S. 576, 580, 101 S.Ct. 2524, 2527, 69 L.Ed.2d 246 (1981); FAIC Securities, Inc. v. United States, 768 F.2d 352, 362 (D.C.Cir. 1985) (Scalia, J.) ().
This Court finds that the language of M.G.L. c. 268B, § 6 is clear. Section 6 prohibits legislative agents from offering or giving "gifts" in excess of $100 per year to any public official or public employee. Section 1 of the same Chapter defines a "gift" as:
a payment, entertainment, subscription, advance, services or anything of value, unless consideration of equal or greater value is received; "gift" shall not include a political contribution reported as required by law, a commercially reasonable loan made in the ordinary course of business, bequests, or a gift received from family members;
M.G.L. c. 268B, § 1(g) (emphasis added).
Common sense dictates that the terms "entertainment" and "anything of value" include free meals and other forms of "shared hospitality." Indeed, if the Massachusetts Legislature had wanted to exclude meals and "shared hospitality" from the statute, it could have done so, just as it excluded campaign contributions, bequests and gifts from family members. Accordingly, this Court finds that the restriction on "gifts" from legislative agents set forth in M.G.L. c. 268B, § 6 applies to gifts of free meals, lodging, tickets to sporting events, golf and other forms of "shared hospitality."
This Court further finds that the word "gifts" in House Rule 16A(12) includes gifts of free meals and "shared hospitality." That rule provides:
No member of the House, officer, or employee shall knowingly accept any gifts with an aggregate value of $100.00 or more in a calendar year from any legislative agent.... (For the purpose of paragraph 12, the definitions of "gift" and "person" are defined in Chapter 268B, Section 1(g) and 1(m).)
House Rule 16A(12) (emphasis added).
Because the Rule adopts its definition of "gifts" from Chapter 268B, and because "gifts" in that Chapter include "shared hospitality," it follows that the word "gifts" in House Rule 16A(12) must also include gifts of free meals and "shared hospitality."
The language of Chapter 3, Section 43 closely resembles the language of M.G.L. c. 268B, § 6. Before the 1994 amendment, the last paragraph of § 43 stated:
No legislative agent shall offer or give to any public official or public employee, as defined in section 1 of chapter 268B, or to any member of such person's immediate family gifts aggregating more than one hundred dollars in a calendar year.
If that paragraph stood by itself, the Court would have been compelled to attribute to the word "gifts" the same meaning as in M.G.L. c. 268B. That paragraph does not, however, stand alone. Rather, it is part of a more lengthy statute, and it is "fundamental that a section of a statute should not be read in isolation from the context of the whole Act." Richards v. United States, 369 U.S. 1, 10, 82 S.Ct. 585, 591, 7 L.Ed.2d 492 (1962). See also Pedraza v. Shell Oil Co., 942 F.2d 48, 51 (1st Cir.1991). This Court, therefore, reexamines the issue of whether the term "gifts" includes meals, entertainment and other "shared hospitality" in the context of M.G.L. c. 3, § 43.
After careful consideration of the entire statute, the Court concludes that the term "gifts" in Chapter 3, Section 43 does not include meals, entertainment or other "shared hospitality." The Court bases its conclusion on four grounds.
Such itemized accounting shall include, but shall not be limited to specific expenditures for meals, gifts, transportation, entertainment ... Where such expenditure is for meals, entertainment, or transportation, said expenditure shall be identified by date, place, amount, and the names of all persons in the group partaking in or of such meal, entertainment or transportation....
If the Court interpreted "gifts" as including meals, entertainment and other "shared hospitality," that first paragraph would contain inoperative and redundant terms. It not only lists meals, gifts and entertainment separately, but it differentiates between their treatment. To include "meals and entertainment" within the meaning of "gifts" in the last paragraph of § 43 would render it entirely inconsistent with the first paragraph. See Beeler v. Downey, 387 Mass. 609, 617, 442 N.E.2d 19 (1982) (). Because a statute should not be interpreted so as to render a provision inconsistent with another provision of the same statute, this Court is obliged to read "gifts" in § 43 as exclusive and independent of meals and entertainment. See ...
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