April 27th, 2019

United States v. Baker

Docket: 17-51034
Opinion Date: April 26, 2019
Judge: Jacques Loeb Wiener, Jr.
Areas of Law: Criminal Law

The Fifth Circuit treated the petition for rehearing en banc as a petition for panel rehearing and denied the petition for rehearing en banc. The court substituted the following opinion in place of its prior opinion. The court affirmed defendant's conviction of wire fraud, securities fraud, making false statements to the SEC, and conspiracy to commit wire fraud and securities fraud. The court held that the district court committed harmless error by admitting the testimony of an FBI case agent; the district court did not abuse its discretion by excluding the deposition testimony of ArthroCare's former controller who invoked the Fifth Amendment and did not testify at defendant's trial; the district court did not erroneously instruct the jury on the "obtain money or property" element of the wire fraud offense; and the jury was properly instructed on accomplice liability. The court rejected defendant's remaining arguments as meritless.

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