United States v. Chafin, No. 14-10160 (11th Cir. 2015)
Annotate this CaseDefendant, the Sheriff of Brooks County, appealed his convictions for federal-program embezzlement and for obstructing justice by hindering the communication of information about a potential federal offense to federal officials. The court concluded from the record that the government presented sufficient evidence to prove that Brooks County received more than $10,000 in federal funds during both 2007 and 2008 and therefore, the court affirmed defendant's conviction for federal-program embezzlement. However, the court vacated defendant's conviction for obstructing justice because the district court plainly erred in applying this circuit’s now-rejected possibility standard rather than the Supreme Court’s reasonable likelihood standard. Based on the trial evidence, the government did not meet its burden of proving that there was a reasonable likelihood that defendant’s misleading information about a potential federal offense would be communicated to federal authorities. The court remanded for further proceedings.
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