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U.S. v. DOUGLAS
634 F.3d 852 (2011)
UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff-Appellee/Cross-Appellant,
v.
Donny G. DOUGLAS (07-1695/1850) and Jay D. Campbell (07-1696/1851), Defendants-Appellants/Cross-Appellees.
Nos. 07-1695, 07-1696, 07-1850, 07-1851.
United States Court of Appeals, Sixth Circuit.
Argued: January 20, 2011.
Decided and Filed: February 10, 2011.
ARGUED: N.C. Deday LaRene, LaRene & Kriger, P.L.C., Detroit, Michigan, Harold Gurewitz, Gurewitz & Raben, PLC, Detroit, Michigan, for Appellants. Kathleen Moro Nesi, Assistant United States Attorney, Detroit, Michigan, for Appellee. ON BRIEF: N.C. Deday LaRene, LaRene & Kriger, P.L.C., Detroit, Michigan, Harold Gurewitz, Gurewitz & Raben, PLC, Detroit, Michigan, for Appellants. Kathleen Moro Nesi, Assistant United States Attorney, Detroit, Michigan, for Appellee.
Before: MARTIN and MOORE, Circuit Judges; BUNNING, District Judge.*
OPINIONBOYCE F. MARTIN, JR., Circuit Judge. Defendants-Appellants-Cross-Appellees Donny Douglas and Jay Campbell appeal their convictions under the Labor Management Relations Act and the Hobbs Act. The United States cross-appeals their sentences. This case is now in its eighth year of litigation. Some of the underlying events transpired over seventeen years ago. Our court, and this same panel, heard a first appeal in this case more than six years ago. United States v. Douglas, 398 F.3d 407 (6th Cir.2005). For the following reasons, we AFFIRM Douglas's and Campbell's convictions, and although we would prefer to end these lengthy proceedings and give closure to the parties, we must REMAND for resentencing. I. BACKGROUNDDonny Douglas and Jay Campbell worked as representatives of the United Auto Workers at the General Motors factory in Pontiac, Michigan. While negotiating with General Motors in the 1990s, they pressured General Motors several times to give highly skilled, "journeyman" jobs to two non-qualified relatives of Union members. These jobs paid as much as $150,000 per year, which was approximately double
the salary of a production line worker. General Motors refused to comply each time. Acquiescing would have violated the hiring priorities set forth in the national and local agreements between the Union and General Motors. The pressure came to a head when the Union was on strike in 1997, costing General Motors millions of dollars each day. On the eighty-seventh day of the strike, Union leaders met with representatives from General Motors to attempt to resolve all their issues and end the strike within twenty-four hours. The parties successfully resolved every official issue and grievance between them within twenty-four hours, but Douglas informed James Rhadigan, a General Motors official, that the strike would not end unless the two unqualified relatives of Union members finally received journeyman jobs. Rhadigan relented, the non-qualified relatives received the journeyman jobs, and the strike ended. As a result, multiple qualified journeyman applicants filed grievances with General Motors for not adhering to the hiring priorities laid out in the national and local agreements. Two qualified applicants were eventually hired on top of the two non-qualified Union member relatives. The United States prosecuted Douglas and Campbell for violations of the Labor Management Relations Act and the Hobbs Act, claiming that they conspired to demand "things of value" and wrongfully used their labor positions to force General Motors to give jobs to two relatives of Union members. The district court dismissed the indictment as insufficient, but this Court reversed when this same panel found that the indictment sufficiently alleged the charges. Subsequently, Douglas and Campbell proceeded to trial and were convicted. They now appeal, arguing that their convictions are not supported by sufficient evidence. The United States cross-appeals their sentences. II. DISCUSSION
* The Honorable David L. Bunning, United States District Judge for the Eastern District of Kentucky, sitting by designation.
1. Stinson is still good law after Booker. See, e.g., United States v. Lay, 583 F.3d 436, 446 (6th Cir.2009) ("The Commentary is `authoritative.'" (quoting Stinson, 508 U.S. at 38, 113 S.Ct. 1913)).
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