Perjury Conviction Based on Statements in 2255 Motion Upheld

U.S. v. Rodriguez-Chavez, 2008 WL 4139386 (9/9/08) (unpub'd) - The defendant was convicted of perjury for two false statements in his 2255 motion: (1) that his counsel never spoke to him about his offense; and (2) that his counsel forced him to sign a plea agreement. The 10th held the evidence was sufficient to prove the defendant knew the 2255 motion contained false statements, despite the Spanish-speaking defendant's claim that he just signed, but did not read, a document written in English, a language he didn't understand, by a jailhouse lawyer. The evidence the 10th said supported the bench verdict were: the defendant lived in the U.S. for 20 years and must have picked up some English; he worked various jobs and had extensive exposure to the criminal justice system; he had sent two letters to the court in English, although there was no evidence he wrote the letters; the relative ease of finding an inmate in a federal system who is bilingual; and he gave contradictory testimony about whether he gave information to the jailhouse lawyer.