United States v. Kathleen Gayle Stuart

A jury found Kathleen Gayle Stuart guilty of conspiring to misapply, and misapplying, funds of a savings and loan institution, and of making false entries in the records of a savings and loan association. On appeal, Stuart contends that the district court erred in (1) denying her motion for judgment of acquittal on the misapplication count, (2) denying her access to psychiatric reports made on a key government witness, and (3) admitting a prior consistent statement of a key government witness in the absence of a charge of recent fabrication. Because none of these arguments has merit, we affirm.

I. Facts

In July of 1980, Kathleen Stuart and John Van de Water discussed the possibility of illegally withdrawing funds from Gibraltar Savings and Loan Association (“Gibraltar”). Shortly thereafter, Van de Water obtained a position at Gibraltar’s Laguna Hills branch, and Stuart obtained a position at Gibraltar’s Santa Monica branch for the purpose of facilitating an illegal inter-branch withdrawal of funds from a Gibraltar “jumbo account,” an account with a balance in excess of $100,000. Van de Water used the computer terminal at the bank to locate various jumbo accounts and targeted an…