November 08th, 2017

​US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit Opinions
United States v. Gibson

Docket: 15-20323
Opinion Date: November 7, 2017
Judge: Stephen Andrew Higginson
Areas of Law: Criminal Law

The Fifth Circuit affirmed defendants' convictions for conspiracy to defraud Medicare, pay unlawful kickbacks, and launder money. The court held that the evidence was sufficient to support the convictions; there was no merger of the money laundering promotion conspiracy with the health care fraud conspiracy because the two counts were distinct conspiracies, neither of which had as an element any overt act that could have overlapped to create a merger problem; the district court did not commit reversible error in the minor limitation of one cross-examination; the district court properly admitted a co-defendant's out-of-court confession over a Bruton objection; the district court did not err by giving a deliberate ignorance jury instruction; and there was no merit in one of the defendant's restitution objections. Finally, the cumulative error doctrine did not apply in this case.