United States Ninth Circuit

Conviction and sentence for conspiracy to obstruct justice, accessor after the fact to mail fraud and securities law violations, altering documents to influence a federal investigation, and aiding and abetting false testimony at an SEC deposition is affirmed, where: 1) defendant, a practicing attorney and partner at a major law firm, was competent to waive his jury trial and his waiver was knowing and intelligent; and 2) the district court did not plainly err in excluding a non-lawyer's testimony reciting facts and legal conclusions, in determining that the district court was capable of understanding, through a written proffer in a trial brief rather than in live testimony, an expert's opinion regarding defendant's professional and ethical duties as an attorney, and in admitting coconspirator nonhearsay testimony.

Appellate Information

• Decided 04/03/2015
• Published 04/03/2015

Judges

• Ezra

Court

• United States Ninth Circuit

Counsel