Enron appeal could affect local cases
Post-Tribune (IN)
March 2, 2010
The Supreme Court's ruling in Enron executive Jeffrey Skilling's case will have implications for local figures who also faced honest services fraud charges.
Just as in two other cases already before the high court, Skilling's lawyers also question whether the honest services law is too vague to be constitutional.
"I think everyone is expecting to see dramatic changes to the honest services law," said Bryan Truitt, attorney for Lake County political insider Robert Cantrell, who is serving a sentence of nearly seven years for insurance, tax and honest services counts. Truitt notes that federal prosecutors in February revised their indictment of former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich to remove honest services counts.
Cantrell's appeal likely will hinge on a ruling in the Skilling case, or on the cases of media mogul Conrad Black or Alaska legislator Bruce Weyhrauch.
A ruling also could mean former Calumet Township Trustee Dozier T. Allen's conviction on honest services counts could be tossed, said Scott L. King, Allen's attorney.
The charges against Allen and his three co-defendants involve both allegations of the theft of cash and the theft of citizens' rights to honest conduct by public officials, making it difficult for his conviction to stand if the honest services law is deemed unconstitutional, or defined more narrowly.
The statute is vague, and has allowed federal prosecutors to line up a series of convictions in high-profile cases, King admits."But when you have a statute that doesn't have a clear definition, and you throw in a backdrop where there's a basically negative view of public officials, that's a formula for convictions," said King, a former Gary mayor. "There was some abuse of the statute."
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