Deseret News Archives - August 10, 2001
U.S. District Judge David Sam didn't sugar-coat it. In an order released Thursday, he called the racketeering charges against Olympic bid leaders Tom Welch and Dave Johnson "defective," "misguided" and "unconstitutionally vague."
When state lawmakers passed a commercial bribery law, they certainly did not mean it to apply to the Olympic lobbying effort, Sam concluded in the 29-page order, written to more "fully explain" his July 16 dismissal of four of the 15 federal charges against the pair.
It "broaches absurdity to believe that the Legislature intended to criminalize goodwill gifts or gestures, especially in the context of promoting Salt Lake City and the state of Utah on the world stage to host the Olympic Winter Games," Sam said.
Ten counts of fraud and one conspiracy charge still remain in the case, but the trial has been postponed indefinitely.
Sam has yet to schedule a hearing for oral argument on the other charges.
In his scathing critique of the prosecution's racketeering charges, Sam said Utah's bribery law was being "co-opted by the federal government" by use of the federal Travel Act—a part of Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy's legislative program to fight organized crime and racketeering in the 1960s.
"Congress enacted that legislation to assist states in enforcing their laws against participants in organized crime who use state boundaries to avoid prosecution," Sam wrote. "A fair reading of the indictment does not reflect that defendants are members of a criminal business enterprise, an organized syndicate or a 'crime family.' "
Utah officials "elected not to prosecute" Welch and Johnson under the bribery statute, he said.
"Nevertheless, the federal government is attempting unilaterally to 'aid' Utah in enforcing a Utah law under circumstances which defy characterization as 'organized crime.' "
The judge called the government's case an "uninvited federal intrusion into state criminal prosecutions."
"A federal criminal prosecution, where an individual's reputation and liberty are at stake, is not the place to experiment with novel interpretations of state law," he wrote. "However well-intentioned, federal prosecutors are misguided in attempting to fit the proverbial round peg into a square hole."
Sam's reasoning stands in stark contrast to an earlier order written by the federal magistrate assigned by Sam to hear pre-trial matters in the case.
"The contention that the indictment allegations do not fit the Utah statue is without merit," U.S. Magistrate Ronald Boyce wrote in June. "Defendants gave various benefits to the (International Olympic Committee) members to influence their vote in favor of Salt Lake City for the 2002 Winter Olympics.
"The action was allegedly contrary to (the) IOC's regulations and its interest," Boyce said.
Boyce allowed all 15 of the charges against Welch and Johnson to stand.
Sam only considered Boyce's report and recommendation after the pair's attorneys asked for its review, something they have also requested for the fraud charges.
The attorneys and federal prosecutors did not return calls for comment Thursday or today.
The government has until Monday to file a notice of appeal of Sam's ruling to the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver. Or it could continue its prosecution of Welch and Johnson with the remaining 11 charges.
Despite Sam's resounding rejection of the racketeering charges, some legal observers believe a significant case still remains.
"There's no doubt (the racketeering charges) were the guts of the case, but having cut those out doesn't mean the fraud counts can't stand," Notre Dame law professor and former federal prosecutor Robert Blakey said.
"If these guys don't go down, it's because the government did not charge them and try them competently," he said.
