United States v. Svend Edvard Petersen, United States of America v. Richard Dean Dickison

Appellants Svend Edvard Petersen and Richard Dean Dickison were convicted of converting government property, 18 U.S.C. §§ 2 , 641. They had received a government contract to cut and purchase certain dead, diseased, or damaged trees in a United States forest at a fixed rate. In addition to removing trees marked for removal by the Forest Service, Petersen and Dickison secretly marked and removed healthy trees, which they sold to lumber yards for a large profit.

Petersen and Dickison contend that the reasonable construction of a liquidated damage provision gave them an option to cut additional trees at will, and that they could not be charged with stealing because another provision gave them title to the timber. They also contend that there was insufficient evidence to convict them and that they received ineffective assistance of counsel. Their contentions are meritless. We AFFIRM.

I. The Contract

A. The Liquidated Damage Clause

The contract provided that Petersen would clear the forest of designated timber, marked with yellow Forest Service tracer paint, and that Petersen would pay a fixed price for the timber. It also provided that if Petersen should negligently or willfully…