APPEALS COURT THROWS OUT FEDERAL BRIBERY CONVICTION 

Client was convicted after a jury trial where the evidence showed that client, a licensing inspector for the Virgin Islands, requested sexual favors from a woman who was in the country illegally. The Government’s theory was that client committed bribery when used his public service position to threaten to have the woman deported. Criminal appeals attorney Richard Della Fera argued that evidence of bribery requires that a government official is performing an official act in exchange for something. Della Fera successfully convinced the Court of Appeals that there was no evidence that the client’s official duties covered enforcement of federal immigration laws and, therefore, the conviction could not stand. What is notable about this case is that the Government argued that the client had waived this argument on appeal as the client’s trial lawyer, (who was not Richard Della Fera), did not make this argument at trial. Criminal appeals attorney Della Fera convinced the Court that a conviction that rest on insufficient evidence is plain error and would constitute a miscarriage of justice to allow it to stand regardless of the failure of client’s attorney to raise it. .