Beating a federal rap not easy
By Jason Cato
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Monday, July 31, 2006
Like Las Vegas, the federal court system isn't built on winners.
About 95 percent of federal criminal defendants plead guilty. Of the remaining few who fight in court, nearly nine of 10 are convicted, according to national statistics.
But, on rare occasions, defendants go to trial, win and walk free.
Meet Ryan Schneiderlochner and James Grosjean.
Schneiderlochner, 34, a former Plum police officer, was acquitted July 24 of witness tampering. On the same day, another jury found Grosjean, vice president of a Collier construction company, not guilty of in a multimillion-dollar kickback scheme involving Allegheny Power and two local hospitals.
Many people familiar with Pittsburgh's federal court said they cannot remember another time when two acquittals came in the same week, much less on the same day.
"The odds are pretty stacked against defendants once an indictment is issued; that pretty much seals their fate," said Mark Allenbaugh, a Huntington Beach, Calif., lawyer and nationally recognized expert on the federal court system. "Once the indictment is issued, conviction is almost guaranteed."
Between 2000 and 2005, 99 percent of the 435,000 federal criminal defendants prosecuted nationwide were convicted. The conviction rate was the same for the 2,130 criminal defendants prosecuted during that period in the Western District of Pennsylvania.
Of the 420 people prosecuted last year in the Western District, 415 were found guilty by plea or jury, according to the Administrative Office of U.S. Courts.
A high conviction rate might spell tough-on-crime for some, but not for attorney Paul Boas, who defended Schneiderlochner.
"A 90-plus percent conviction rate isn't something that should be applauded. I think it's something you should worry about," Boas said. "That's what you see in totalitarian regimes."
He said Congress and the U.S. Supreme Court in recent decades have made it easier for federal prosecutors. He doesn't blame prosecutors for using weapons they're provided, but he thinks it has skewed the federal court system.
"Taking away someone's freedoms should never be easy," Boas said. "Unfortunately, it's become way too easy."
In federal court, charges typically are brought only when prosecutors are convinced they can get a conviction or plea. That leads to far fewer cases filed each year than state court, where more than 95 percent of criminal cases are handled.
While local federal prosecutors disposed of 420 criminal cases in 2005, more than 16,000 criminal cases were handled in Allegheny County Common Pleas Court.
U.S. Attorney Mary Beth Buchanan said plea deals are attractive to most federal defendants because her office prosecutes only cases that have been thoroughly investigated and evaluated. Federal prosecutors often work from the beginning with investigators, such as FBI agents, to build cases from the ground up -- a luxury not always enjoyed by county district attorneys.
Once defendants see the evidence, Buchanan said, most recognize they'd be better off pleading guilty.
Those found guilty at trial often face tougher sentences for causing the government to expend additional resources -- and for not taking breaks provided by federal sentencing guidelines and prosecutors for pleading guilty.
For example, a federal drug raid of a Shadyside apartment in February 2005 turned up a makeshift meth lab in a unit occupied by a Ross police officer and his girlfriend. Each was charged with three counts of conspiring to make methamphetamine and possessing the necessary equipment.
The officer, Michael Baird, pleaded guilty after striking a deal to have two charges dropped. U.S. District Judge Alan Bloch limited Baird's sentence to four months of time served, plus one year of probation -- including six months of electronic monitoring -- and a $2,000 fine.
His girlfriend, Jennifer Paczan, was found guilty by a jury. Bloch sentenced her to 33 months in prison.
Former U.S. Attorney Frederick Thieman said defendants shouldn't face tougher sentences just because they went to trial.
"There's a ridiculous cost to exercising your constitutional right to go to trial," Thieman said. "The stakes are too high."
Buchanan said defendants always have the right to go to trial.
"If a defendant believes they did not commit the crime as charged, or if they believe the government cannot prove the case beyond a reasonable doubt, then a defendant absolutely has the right to a jury trial," Buchanan said.
Those who lose shouldn't expect leniency after the fact, Buchanan said.
"They can't have it both ways," she said.
For Grosjean, the construction company executive acquitted last week, there was no alternative other than fighting the charges, said his attorney, Philip Ignelzi. Grosjean turned down a deal on the eve of trial to plead guilty and receive probation, Ignelzi said.
"Pleading guilty was never an option, and we said that from Day One," Ignelzi said. "But it's a tremendous roll of the dice, even when you have a defendable case."
