Jr. William C. Canby

U.S. v. Croft 124 F.3d 1109 C.A.9 (Or.), 1997

Published by Good Press, 2022
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EAN 4064066409005

Table of Contents


Opinion
Background
Analysis
I. Sufficiency of the Indictment
II. Change of Venue
III. Voir Dire
IV. Immunity for Defense Witnesses
V. Continuance for Deposition of Stork
VI. Evidentiary Issues
VII. Cross-Examination and Confrontation Issues
VIII. The Jury Instructions
IX. Discovery issues
X. Sufficiency of the evidence
Conclusion

124 F.3d 1109, 47 Fed. R. Evid. Serv. 1048, 97 Cal. Daily Op. Serv. 7173, 97 Daily Journal D.A.R. 11,560

United States Court of Appeals,
Ninth Circuit.
UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff-Appellee,
v.
Sally Anne CROFT, Defendant-Appellant.
UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff-Appellee,
v.
Susan HAGAN, Defendant-Appellant.
Nos. 95-30378, 95-30397.
Argued and Submitted Nov. 4, 1996.
Decided Sept. 5, 1997.

John F. DuPue, United States Department of Justice, Washington, DC, for plaintiff-appellee.

Leslie R. Weatherhead, Spokane, WA, for defendant-appellant Croft.

Steven T. Wax and Colleen B. Scissors, Portland, OR, for defendant-appellant Hagan.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the District of Oregon; Malcolm F. Marsh, District Judge, Presiding. D.C. Nos. CR-90-00146-2-MFM, CR-90-00146-04- MFM.

Before: CANBY, RYMER and KLEINFELD, Circuit Judges.

Opinion

Table of Contents

CANBY, Circuit Judge:
Sally-Anne Croft and Susan Hagan were convicted by a jury of conspiring to murder the United States Attorney for the District of Oregon, a violation of 18 U.S.C. §§ 1111, 1114, and 1117. Croft and Hagan now appeal their convictions, arguing on a variety of grounds that they were denied a fair trial and a full opportunity to confront the witnesses against them. We have jurisdiction pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1291, and we affirm the convictions.

Background

Table of Contents
BACKGROUND

Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh (“Rajneesh”) was an Indian mystic who developed a substantial following in Poona, India in the 1970s. In 1981, Rajneesh came to America with a number of his Western followers to found a spiritual community, known as Rajneeshpuram, in Central Oregon. From its inception, the community was highly controversial. The number of Rajneesh's followers living at the community eventually grew to approximately four thousand, with as many as 10-15,000 followers attending annual celebrations there.

Rajneesh's disciples were known as “sannyasins,” and a small group of the most trusted among them oversaw the community's business and spiritual operations. Ma Anend Sheela (“Sheela”), Rajneesh's principal secretary and spokeswoman, was in charge of day-to-day operations, and was entrusted with transmitting and executing Rajneesh's orders. Below Sheela were “department coordinators,” a group that included appellants Croft and Hagan. Croft was second-in-command of the community and the head of its financial department. Hagan was in charge of construction, heavy equipment, and the community's security force. Four of the five government witnesses-all of whom were indicted or unindicted co-conspirators-also held important positions in the community: David Knapp was the community's mayor; Richard Langford was the security force's weapons expert; Ava Avalos managed Rajneesh's correspondence and assisted Croft; and Alma Peralta was Sheela's aide-de-camp. The fifth government witness, Phyllis Caldwell, was a member of the community. Two other members of the community, who did not appear as witnesses, figure in this appeal. One is Jane Stork, an indicted co-conspirator whom the government unsuccessfully tried to extradite from Germany. The other is Jorg Dauscher, who attended a few of the meetings. He was not indicted for the conspiracy to murder the United States Attorney, but was indicted for a wiretapping offense and remained out of the United States during the trial.

The conspiracy to murder Charles Turner, then the United States Attorney for the District of Oregon, arose as a consequence of a series of legal difficulties that the Rajneeshpuram community encountered in 1984 and 1985. In 1984, the community learned that federal authorities were investigating numerous sham marriages by which members of the community had secured entry into the United States. At about the same time, a former member of the community, Helen Byron, sued the community to collect money she had lent it; a jury awarded $ 1.7 million in compensatory and punitive damages. Immediately after the verdict, Sheela told several of her department coordinators that the community would never obtain a fair trial in Oregon and that, if the community were to survive, its members would have to take the law into their own hands. Later, during a meeting attended by Croft, Hagan, Stork, Langford, and other members of the Rajneesh community, Sheela stated that it would be necessary for them to assassinate certain of the community's enemies, including Turner.[1] Hagan made a speech to the group at that meeting in which she told the others “we have to do something here. We have to support Sheela.” She said that she was going to run the meeting “so that everyone knows that Sheela isn't forcing us to this, that everyone is taking responsibility on their own.”