Judges mull request to overturn conviction

The contractor will move to a halfway facility before his prison term ends.
YOUNGSTOWN -- The U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals is considering whether the case against a retired Boardman contractor convicted of giving a corrupt congressman a $30,000 "tip" was beyond the statute of limitations.
Bernard J. Bucheit, 72, who has a home in Florida, has been imprisoned at the Federal Correctional Institution in Elkton since October 2003. His projected release from the low-security prison is June 22.
In April 2003, a jury found Bucheit guilty of conspiracy to violate the federal bribery statute, giving an unlawful gratuity to a public official (then-U.S. Rep. James A. Traficant Jr.) and perjury before a federal grand jury. U.S. District Judge Lesley Brooks Wells sentenced Bucheit to 24 months in prison and fined him $5,000.
Confusion with dates
Traficant accepted roughly $30,000 worth of remodeling work done at his Greenford horse farm in the early 1990s from Bucheit, who collected political favors instead of cash.
Near the end of Bucheit's trial, his Cleveland lawyer, Roger M. Synenberg, asked the judge to dismiss the conspiracy charge, arguing that it was beyond the statute of limitations. He said the government wrongly linked Traficant's unpaid bill for 1993 farm work to official acts Traficant took in 1997 and thereafter to resolve a dispute Bucheit's construction company had in the Gaza Strip.
Synenberg argued that the alleged conspiracy ended in 1994, making it beyond the five-year statute of limitations. Bucheit was indicted in January 2002.
Government responds
Three judges at U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati recently heard oral arguments in Bucheit's case. A decision is pending.
Bucheit's Akron lawyer, Christopher C. Eskew, argued, among other points, that the case was barred by the five-year statute of limitations and there was insufficient evidence to support the verdict.
The government, represented by Matthew B. Kall, an assistant U.S. attorney, argued to the appellate judges that Bucheit's challenge to the statute of limitations should have been raised before trial. Also, there was sufficient evidence to prove perjury and to prove overt acts and receipt of value by a public official within the five years, he said.
In the past, federal inmates such as Bucheit were released four to six months before their prison term ended to finish their time at a halfway facility. In this area, it's Community Corrections Association, a halfway facility on Market Street.
Ashcroft made changes
Richard J. Billak, CCA chief executive officer, said Monday that Attorney General John Ashcroft, who announced his resignation after President Bush's re-election last month, tightened releases for white-collar criminals. The change is being challenged in courts, Billak said.
In Bucheit's case, he would likely go to CCA sometime in mid-April, instead of January, Billak said. The release mechanism was changed to reflect 10 percent of the sentence, 24 months in Bucheit's case.
Traficant, 63, convicted of racketeering, bribery and tax evasion, has been incarcerated since July 30, 2002. He was moved from a prison in New York to the Federal Medical Center in Rochester, Minn., earlier this month for treatment of an undisclosed physical or mental health problem.