U.S. v. Betts-Gaston

Record contained sufficient evidence to support jury’s guilty verdict on wire fraud charges stemming from defendant’s scheme to submit home loan applications with declarations of inflated income and other false statements through use of straw buyers that resulted in defendant obtaining loan proceeds, as well as title to homes that had been facing foreclosure. Defendant failed to present evidence to support her claim that govt. had secretly agreed to change proposed sentence for one of its witnesses and further failed for purposes of establishing Brady violation to show that govt. had suppressed knowledge of potential probation sentence that was ultimately received by said witness. Also, Dist. Ct. did not err in failing to ask prospective jurors: (1) their understanding of applicable burden of proof and presumption of innocence, where applicable case law did not require such inquiry; and (2) their experiences with home foreclosure businesses or with lawyers, since jurors knowledge about said topics would not normally incite passions within jury members. Too, defendant failed to show that Dist. Ct. lacked impartiality, as well as displayed hostility and contempt towards defendant’s counsel, even though Dist. Ct. had few instances of unprofessional comments towards defendant’s counsel, where outbursts from defendant’s counsel toward Dist. Ct. were frequent and serious and involved improper accusations that Dist. Ct. was helping govt. establish its case against defendant.