Jury Instructions and Sufficiency of Evidence

Listen to this article

7^th Circuit Court of Appeals

Case Name: United States of America v. Kevin LeBeau, et al.

Case No.: 18-1656; 18-3366

Officials: WOOD, Chief Judge, and KANNE and BRENNAN, Circuit Judges.

Focus: Jury Instructions and Sufficiency of Evidence

Intending to transform a failing health club into a mixed-use condominium development, Kevin LeBeau and Brian Bodie obtained a $1,925,000 loan from Amcore Bank in 2004. By the next year, unfortunately, the loan had fallen into default, and so the pair sought and obtained a forbearance agreement (later amended) from Amcore. These measures did not help either. Ultimately the two men were indicted in 2014 on multiple counts of bank fraud and making false statements to the bank in connection with the loan and forbearance agreements. The case went to trial in 2017, and the jury convicted both LeBeau and Bodie on all counts. The court sentenced each one to 36 months’ imprisonment and restitution of more than a million dollars; both have appealed.

LeBeau raises three arguments in this court: first, that the district court erred by failing to give the jury an instruction on materiality for the bank-fraud offenses; second, that the court should not have admitted evidence related to certain victims’ losses in the scheme and their status as prior victims of fraud; and finally, that he received ineffective assistance of counsel at the sentencing stage, where his lawyer failed to challenge the amount of restitution. Bodie contends that his conviction must be thrown out because the superseding indictment was time-barred. He also disputes the sufficiency of the evidence to convict him. Finding no prejudicial error in any of these respects, we affirm the district court’s final judgments.

Affirmed

Full Text

Derek A Hawkins is trademark corporate counsel for Harley-Davidson. Hawkins oversees the prosecution and maintenance of the Harley-Davidson’s international trademark portfolio in emerging markets.