The Legal Conservative

The Trial |Judge Issued his ruling to day on the Sansom official misconduct charges, and dismissed them, leaving only a perjury charge based on Sansom stating that the College had requested the increase in funds and the state contradicting that testimony.Sansom Order Dismissing Official Misconduct.  As we previously noted, the arguments to dismiss were not frivolous, and the likelihood of this order of dismissal being reversed on appeal should be slim. Public outrage does not a crime make.  On the Perjury charge, it will be interesting to see if that testimony before the Grand Jury meets the test of materiality, since the substantive charges have now been dismissed.  The Trial Court held that it was material, since the grand jury had jurisdiction to investigate official misconduct, even if no charge were brought.

See e.g. Kungys v. United States, 485 U.S. 759, 770 (1988) ” A false statement is material if it has a natural tendency to influence, or is capable of influencing, the decision of the decision-making body to which it was addressed.”