Former Sports, Parks and Recreation Commissioner Calvert White, who was found guilty of honest services wire fraud and federal program-related bribery two weeks ago, requested a new trial Thursday, citing an answer the trial judge gave to jurors during their deliberations.
White’s attorney, Clive Rivers, said the court “failed to adhere to the rules of evidence that questions of fact should always be determined by the jury.”
“The jury must evaluate factual circumstances to determine issues of fact relating to each and every element of an offense,” he wrote. “In the case … the trial judge invaded the province of the jury when it answered a question of fact although there was sufficient evidence to establish an inquiry that was for the jury to decide. The existence and effect of certain communications presented a factual question that was decided by the trial court instead of the jury. This is grounds for a new trial.”
Jurors began deliberating in the afternoon on June 24 and returned guilty verdicts for White and another defendant, business owner Benjamin Hendricks, the following day. During their deliberations, they asked U.S. District Judge Mark Kearney three questions, including one asking whether it’s common knowledge that things like text messages, phone calls and emails constitute a wire transaction. Kearney did not speak to what is common knowledge but did give jurors a legal definition of wire transactions in interstate commerce.
In the motion filed Thursday, Rivers asked the court for time to file a memorandum of law in support of White’s motion for a new trial. Hendricks’s attorney, Darren John-Baptiste, asked for a joinder to White’s motion, according to a filing later Thursday.
