United States v. Teresa Demint

MEMORANDUM

Teresa DeMint appeals her conviction after jury trial of seven counts of causing embezzlement and theft from an employee benefit plan, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 664 . We have jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 1291 , and we affirm.

On appeal, DeMint challenges various evidentiary rulings at trial, claiming that they were caused by the district court’s misapprehension of the requisite mens rea. Specifically, she claims that the district court failed to recognize that the government was required to prove that she acted willfully, i.e. with a fraudulent intent, bad purpose, or evil motive, to deprive another of property. See United States v. Wiseman, 274 F.3d 1235, 1240 (9th Cir. 2001) (defendant “must knowingly act wrongfully to deprive! another of property” (alteration in original) (internal quotation marks omitted)). This contention is belied by the record. The district court inquired, and was correctly informed, about the requisite mens rea at the pretrial conference. The district court additionally correctly instructed the jury as to the willfulness requirement, as DeMint concedes. While the district court focused many of its eviden-tiary rulings on whether the…