Marvin Mandel Trial: 1977

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Marvin Mandel Trial: 1977

Defendant: Maryland Governor Marvin Mandel
Crimes Charged: Mail fraud and racketeering
Chief Defense Lawyers: M. Albert Figinski, Eugene Gressman, D. Christopher Ohly, and Arnold M. Weiner
Chief Prosecutors: Russell T. Baker, Jr., Daniel J. Hurson, Barnet D. Skolnik, and Elizabeth H. Trimble
Judge: Robert L. Taylor
Place: Baltimore, Maryland
Dates of Trial: June 1-August 21, 1977
Verdict: Guilty, later overturned
Sentence: 4 years in prison, commuted after 19 months served.

SIGNIFICANCE: The Marvin Mandel trial was a national scandal, exposing massive political corruption at the highest level of Maryland state government. The reversal of Mandel's conviction, however, signaled a limit on the ability to attack state crimes through federal statutes.

On December 31, 1971, a group of businessmen and investors purchased the Marlboro Race Track in Prince George's County, Maryland. Like all of Maryland's horse racing tracks, the Marlboro track was regulated by the state, and it was allotted 18 racing days. Eager to increase their profits, and not too concerned about the means used, the new owners approached Maryland Governor Marvin Mandel and asked for help. Mandel, formerly a strong advocate of strict horse racing regulation, suddenly dropped his opposition to a bill pending in the Maryland General Assembly that would increase Marlboro's racing days from 18 to 36. The bill passed on January 12, 1972. In March 1972, Mandel successfully lobbied the General Assembly to increase the number of racing days again, this time from 36 to 94. Further, Mandel helped the Marlboro owners acquire interests in other Maryland racetracks.

For his help, Mandel received cash and other valuables under the table from the investors. Expensive clothes and jewelry that Mandel purchased were paid for by the racetrack owners, who also gave Mandel a valuable interest in a new Maryland waterfront development called Ray's Point. Federal prosecutors discovered Mandel's activities, however, and indicted him along with racetrack investors Ernest N. Cory, Jr., W. Dale Hess, Irvin Kovens, Harry W. Rodgers III, and William A. Rodgers.

Tried, Convicted, and Ultimately Acquitted

Mandel was charged with violations of federal law and not state law, namely those federal laws which prohibit mail fraud and racketeering. Prosecutors frequently invoke "mail fraud" when anything connected with a crime goes through the U.S. mail system, such as a check mailed by one defendant to another. Mandel's lawyers were M. Albert Figinski, Eugene Gressman, D. Christopher Ohly, and Arnold M. Weiner. The chief prosecutors were Russell T. Baker, Jr., Daniel J. Hurson, Barnet D. Skolnik, and Elizabeth H. Trimble. The trial began on June 1, 1977, before Judge Robert L. Taylor in Baltimore, Maryland.

The trial lasted nearly three months, during which Mandel fought with the prosecutors over virtually every issue. For example, when Skolnik introduced telephone company records into evidence to show the existence of phone calls between Mandel and the other defendants, Mandel even denied knowledge of his own telephone number.

Question: Governor, who in [your personal office suite] had the phone number 267-5901?

Answer: Mrs. Grace Donald.

Question: And who else, sir?

Answer: Mrs. Grace Donald.

Question: Wasn't that your phone number, sir?

Answer: No, sir, that was Mrs. Grace Donald's phone number listed to the executive office. That was her phone. That is the way she handled it.

Exasperated, Skolnik presented a Maryland state government phone directory, which established that Mandel's telephone number was indeed 267-5901.

On August 21, 1977, the jury found Mandel guilty. He was sentenced to four years in prison. Mandel's attorneys appealed and won a brief victory when the U.S. Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals overturned Mandel's conviction. The Fourth Circuit reheard the appeal, however, and decided to uphold the conviction. Mandel went to prison and served 19 months of his sentence, but the rest, was commuted. Even after he served his sentence, Mandel continued to fight the conviction to clear his name.

On November 12, 1987, Judge Frederic N. Smalkin of the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland, where Mandel had been tried, overturned Mandel's conviction. Smalkin did not deny the strong evidence of bribery and dishonesty presented at Mandel's trial, but he insisted that the prosecutors had stretched their interpretation of federal mail fraud and racketeering laws past the breaking point to bring Mandel to trial for what were really state crimes. Thus, although Mandel remains a political pariah, the outcome of his trial was, in fact, a failure for the federal prosecutors.

—Stephen G. Christianson